Skills for place-based work

PLACE has identified 6 key skills for place-based work. This is the first step towards supporting the development of a strong place-based workforce.

The key skills required have been identified through extensive desktop research of Australian frameworks and case studies and lived experience of place-based work. The research looked at place-based work happening across diverse sectors including youth justice, children and families, mental health and employment.

PLACE will be testing and refining these skills with communities, government, philanthropic organisations, practitioners, independent lead organisations and others doing place-based work across Australia. Your insights via the PBI Skill Reflection Tool will ensure the skills are relevant to the work being done. The skills will form part of a national workforce strategy, which will be released in June 2026. 

Each key skill has a set of descriptors to support place-based work. Download the Key Place-Based Skills report here.  

  • Download the 6 key skills here

  • We ask you to review the 6 key skills for Place-Based Initiatives (PBI), using the (PBI) Skills Reflection Tool below, and send us your insights to help shape the national workforce strategy.  

    Reflection is an action that improves sector-wide practice. This tool supports your team, organisation, network or other group to identify individual strengths and move towards building a shared strengths map.  

    PLACE will continue to develop tools and resources to amplify and strengthen place-based work as part of developing the national workforce strategy. The strategy will be released in June 2026 – watch this space.  

    We have developed several other tools below to get you started in using these skills creatively to support continuous learning. 

    If you’d like to share insights on how you’ve used these tools or their relevance to your work, please get in touch via info@placeaustralia.org.  

Key Skill Workshop  

Another way to use these skills is to pick one key skill (e.g. Leadership) to workshop with your group (for example, your community, team, organisation or network). Share the skill descriptors (below) with the group and ask the following questions: 

  1. Can you share an example where you used one or more of the leadership skills to serve the community? or Think of a challenge you worked through – how did these leadership skills show up? 

  2. How are you currently building these skills at work? 

  • Can you identify one action you can take to further strengthen these leadership skills and qualities?

This tool is solely for your use. Workshopping supports peer-to-peer learning through:  

  • sharing knowledge  

  • identifying and sharing learning pathways  

  • exploring potential collaboration with others.  

We encourage you to use the 6 key skills in a way that works for you.