The Application Process

 

Positions in commence in either February (first 6 months) or August (second 6 months) 

Applications for 2026 positions will open in July 2025. 

Each site may also put out a job ad via their medical workforce

unit and should reference if the applications are via VPAT. 

 

 

If you would like a specific Position Description for any of the jobs you are interested in, please email the contact person at that site/department who will be able to forward one to you.  We recommend you obtain job descriptions for the roles you are planning to preference.  

• There are 3 main steps to the application process.  You do not need to do all steps at the same time, as long as they are all done by the closing date
  1. Submit the application with your CV and cover letter(s), with referee names and emails
  2. Choose your preferences -these can be changed any time up until the closing date 
  3. Record a video interview - please note that this is hosted on a Western Health site, so it may display the Western Health logo.

To apply you will need to:

1. Register through the Victorian Paediatric Advanced Trainee portal (https://vpat.au).

• If you applied via this portal last year, you can use your same email and password - your applications from prior years have been archived, so you will begin the "Apply" process again for 2025 positions.  If your email has changed, then you will need to make a new profile and log-in
• You will need to create a profile when you get to this site.  You do not have to load a picture of yourself (this is optional).  Once you have successfully created a profile, you will then see the menu to apply. 
  • If you don't see the menu - click the blue suitcase with a plus sign on the top banner to open it.
• Do not apply on this site unless we are in the recruitment open period - your application will be archived!

2.  Fill in the registration form and upload your CV and cover letters.   

• You are strongly encouraged to load several cover letters if the roles you are applying to have specialist aspects.   
• We recommend one letter for Chief Registrar /Senior Fellow roles; one letter for Community Roles; one letter for General Paediatric Registrar roles; one letter for NICU roles.  You do not need to supply a separate letter for each health service for these general categories. 
• Some department do require a specific cover letter directed to their service.  This is listed on their information tile if required.  Some examples are VFPMS, VAHS, WADJA, and Subspecialist roles.  If you have multiple letters that fit into the "Other" category on the application portal, then please save multiple letters into a single document and then upload - the sites know to scroll through to their directed letter.

     What should my cover letter address?

• Information on your skills and attributes for the type(s) of jobs you are applying for - for example, if you are applying for NICU roles it would be pertinent to discuss things like your experience with neonatal medicine, procedural skills, research and audit.

3.  Nominate 3 referees, supplying email and phone number. 

• Please carefully review the email addresses before you submit, as incorrect email addresses mean your referees won't get the link.  Do NOT put in "test" referee emails, as you cannot update these after you have submitted your application.
• The website will automatically email your referees. Please ask them to check their spam folder if they do not receive it.
• Once referees complete their reference, you will be notified by return email that this has been completed.
• A minimum of 2 referees need to respond in order for your application to be complete - so don't worry if you don't get all 3 to respond.  Your referees have 2 weeks following the close of applications in order to get their report returned.  Referees who do not respond by the closing date will receive one reminder email automatically.  If your referee has difficulty with the link, please ask them to email vpat.recruitment@gmail.com 

Please note that VPAT does not supply referee reports to departments/sites/positions who  are not part of our central process - please do not ask us to do this. 

If a department or health service is not participating in the centralised applications, then you will need to have referees complete references separately for your applications to those sites/departments.

4.  Submit the application.  

• You will receive an email notification that your application has been received.

5. Make your preferences from the Menu on the portal - you must make some preferences (even if you would accept any position) or your application will not be considered. 

All metropolitan (including outer-metropolitan) positions may be offered in EITHER order (regardless of

whether you have preferenced them as 1st 6 months or 2nd 6 months).  Some positions are combined roles with 

6 months at each site.  These are only listed once in the preference list, but will be offered in either order.

We do endeavour to offer positions in the term you have requested, but this is NOT GUARANTEED. 

 If there is a reason why  you require a particular order to your rotations

then you MUST email the VPAT email to let us know, stating your specific reasons - as our allocations team

are not mind-readers!

Rural positions, however, will be offered in the term they are preferenced - unless you have specifically 

let us know that you are happy to be allocated to them in either order, (which is helpful if you are trying to

get a competitive rotation in the other 6 months - it maximises your chances of us being able to allocate you

to your highest job preferences.

• If you click on the Job List tab on the application portal, you will be able to see the roles that will be in the drop-down preference lists. 
  • At the top of the job list page there is a search function - so you can search by Health Service or Department or you can search "part time" and only see roles that match that criteria. 
• Go to www.vprat.org if you want more information about any of the jobs and/or get in touch with the contact person for the position
• If you are worried that your preferencing isn't clear - then just send us an email

 

• Do NOT preference a position that you are not fully committed to accepting should it be offered.
  • As the matching process is complex, we may need to match someone to a role that is further down their preference list, so you must be willing to accept the position if offered. 
  • If you are genuinely prepared to accept any offer at any health service, then please tick the "Yes" box at the top of the preference form - but you should ALSO fill in preferences. 
  • If you only want to be considered for the jobs in your preference list, then tick "No"

 

• If you are applying as a job-share partnership - both sets of preferences for any proposed job-share roles should be in the same order 
  • If you want to apply individually to a part-time preference, then you can list these jobs within your preferences, as it will be assumed that you want to job-share any full-time position OR accept a part-time position as an independent applicant.
  • Please also email the vpat email to ensure your preferencing is clear to the team if you are listing both part time and job-share roles.  vpat.recruitment@gmail.com
  • Please be aware that if you have some job-share roles and some independent roles - this diminishes the number of positions you will be eligible for if we allocated your job-share partner to one of their part-time roles - so it does risk one job-share partner ending up unallocated.
  • Please also be aware that BOTH job-partners need to accept the allocation once made - otherwise the remaining person may have the offer rescinded - not all sites are able to accommodate someone part-time as a standalone - so you are applying as a PAIR.

 

• For the RCH rotating registrar positions:  you may preference "Any Rotating Registrar Position" rather than choosing each position separately
  • If you preference as "Any Rotating Registrar Position" you will not have an option to negotiate the offered rotations unless there are vacant roles.  This should be discussed when you receive your offer.

 

• Do not change the order of your preferences after the closing date as sites will be reviewing applications at that time. 
  • You may email vpat.recruitment@gmail.com if you really need to make changes for exceptional reasons - as this will ensure sites are alerted to your requested changes.  The vpat team will update the portal on the back-end to reflect any approved changes.  
  • You may remove preferences if you no longer wish to be considered for some of the jobs.  This will move all the subsequent preferences up by one position.  You will need to email the vpat team in order to remove these.

 

• You do not have to select all 10 preferences 
  • You may choose to preference only 1 or 2 jobs if they are the only things that you want/need (e.g. looking only for specific jobs). 
  • It is prudent to put one or two "next-best" options however - particularly if you are seeking a community (D&P) position, as these are very popular.  We regularly have a few trainees who are unable to be offered a position in the first round as they have placed only a couple of options in their list, or listed only community positions.  And once we have done allocations, there may not be available jobs left that you want to do.

 

• Roles are offered in either order - you cannot preference which order to do metro or outer-metro rotations - even if it looks like you are listing it as 1st 6 months and 2nd 6 months preferences in the portal.
  • If you want 2 x 6 month roles (ie. your own combined job), you will be able to list 10 preferences for the 1st 6 months and 10 preferences for the 2nd 6 months. 
    • If these are metro positions, then they may be offered in either the 1st half or 2nd half of the year - ie there is not guarantee that it will be in the position you have preferenced it (although we do try to match it to the term you have placed it in where we can)
    • Please be aware that each 6 months will be allocated separately, so you may get your 1st preference in one 6 months, and a lower preference in the other 6 months (ie these are not linked and are treated as separate applications to those roles, even if they are intermingled amongst 12 month positions).  
• Rural positions should be placed in the part of the year in which you wish to do this rotation- they will be allocated in the term you have requested, unless you email to indicate that you are happy to do the rotations in either order (which will then improve your chances to get your preferred other rotation).
  • Do not preference rural sites in both the first half of the year and the second half of the year unless you are genuinely prepared to do 2 x rural rotations.

6. Click the Tab on the portal or the link in your confirmation email to record your interview 

• This MUST be completed before the application closing date (even if you know that a site does additional separate interviews)
• Do not leave it to the last minute - it is stressful for you if there are any glitches and the deadline is in a couple of hours!
• Your application cannot be considered in the first round if you have not completed the interview  (unless there are significant technical issues - in which case the sites are notified about the issue and may elect to interview you separately or go off paper application)
• Please note that you will be directed to an external site to record your interview. 
• Click on the blue tab that says "I'm interested" when you see the welcome page - and this will then prompt you to register your name and email, and then take you to the section where you can record your interview.
• The interview site is hosted by Western Health on the MyInterview platform. 
  • You may see a Western Health logo and the video has an image of Sunshine Hospital.  This is the correct page - it is being shared by our collaboration so all sites can review the interviews.  
• If you get blocked by your organisation's firewall - please complete the interview from a home computer network.  Make sure you have stable internet available for your interview.
• It will take approximately 20 minutes to record your interview. 
• Once you click on the link to record your interview - you should complete the whole interview within the one sitting. 
• You will only have one attempt to record each of the interview questions.
• Do NOT press pause at any time during the interview
• You only need to have 4 of the 6 questions fully recorded to consider your interview complete - so don't stress if one single question doesn't record properly!
• You will not receive a notification from VPAT about interview completion, as this is via an external site. 
• If you have issues during your interview and there are concerns about whether it recorded, please use the Help/Support feature on the MyInterview platform.  If there are other issues, then please email vpat.recruitment@gmail.com
• We are not offering the opportunity to re-set the interview.  
  • As long as you have 4 (of the 6) questions recorded, it will be considered complete.  
  • If there are major errors then the sites will contact you if they wish to do an additional interview.  

You may also be invited to an additional live interview for particular positions or sites, at their discretion.  

• In particular this is likely for Senior Registrar roles, Community Child Health roles, NICU or ED roles.  These will occur in the 3 weeks after job applications close. You will be contacted by those sites directly if they wish you to attend a supplementary interview.

 

All jobs offered within VPAT will be offered via this central process even if you interview for a particular job separately or have submitted paperwork on their recruitment site.  

You should not be receiving job offers from participating sites/departments prior to the allocation period.  If this occurs, the central application process will be compromised for future years.

 

 

7. If you have accepted another position (from a site that is not participating in the central recruitment), PLEASE withdraw from VPAT on the portal, or update your length of contract requested (from 12 months to 6 months). 

• We request you do this prior to 20th August, as this is when allocation processes will begin in the background. 
• If you are wanting to drop from 12 months to 6 months only, please send this request to vpat.recruitment@gmail.com and we will update this in the backend of the portal.
• If you have been made an offer elsewhere, but you have something in your preference list that you want more than what you have been offered - then please get in touch and we can remove the preferences for jobs you no longer wish to be considered for.  This is done by emailing vpat.recruitment@gmail.com 
• If you want to withdraw entirely, then just go to the application portal and hit the Withdraw button - you will be asked to sign that you have requested to withdraw and then this will be recorded on your profile for this year so the sites are aware.  
• If you do not withdraw and then do not accept the offered position, another candidate may miss out on their preferred position - and the position you have been matched to may remain empty.  This is not good for anyone.   

 

6. You will only receive ONE offer via this centralised process 

• If you have put in for 2 x 6 months positions that are not currently combined, then both of these will be offered at this time if we can - but you will be contacted by each department for their portion of the offer.
• The department/site you have been allocated to will contact you to make the VPAT offer.  This will be the best possible match from your preferences and the health service rankings of candidates for their service.  

 

• Not every applicant will be offered a position in this process.  And sometimes we cannot allocate you to both rotations, and so you may only have half the year allocated. 
  • This may be due to one of the following reasons:
    • Other applicants were rated more highly for the jobs you have preferenced by the departments / health services
      • Some jobs get a lot of applicants each year and are very competitive
      • Some jobs only have one or two positions available 
    • You were not considered suitable by any of the services you applied to
      • This may be the case for some applicants who do not have the prerequisite requirements for the role, or the service is unable to support your requirements (e.g. if you have no neonatal experience, some of the General Paediatric roles may not be suitable for your level of experience)
        • This may particularly be the case for unaccredited registrars or for overseas trained doctors with specific needs for top-up training or for AHPRA registration. 
    • Your application requires another level of assessment that was not able to be completed prior to allocation day
      • This may be the case for doctors who are currently overseas and have not worked in the Australian hospital system previously.  
         

8. Any vacant positions after allocations will be re-advertised by the individual health services

• Local applicants who have not been allocated one of their preferred positions will be notified what roles are still available and may re-preference for remaining positions in the week following initial allocations.  You will be notified by email if we have been unable to match you to a position.

 

9.  Once you have been offered a position, you will have 24 hours to accept (or decline) the offer by notifying the nominated contact person for that role.

• Please be aware that if you decline your initial offer, you will not be offered another role in a second round of VPAT offers.
• Any vacant positions at the end of 2 rounds of offers will be recruited directly by sites and you will need to apply individually to these when they are opened if you are still seeking a position.

 

Other Queries:

Who can apply via this website?

• Advanced Paediatric Trainees with the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP)
  • General Paediatric trainees
  • Neonatology trainees
  • Community Paediatric trainees
  • Other Subspecialty Paediatric trainees
• Continuing Basic Paediatric Trainees
  • Those basic trainees who have completed all of their time-based requirements, but are still waiting to complete their exams (if you are a Basic Trainee who still has time requirements to complete, please contact your DPE)
• Fellows of the RACP wishing to complete an additional year of training
• International Medical Graduates with sufficient paediatric or neonatal experience, including those who require Peer Review 
• Unaccredited registrars who are not in the paediatric training program, but who wish to work as a paediatric registrar 
• ACEM / PEM / ICU trainees seeking paediatric experience
• GP trainees seeking paediatric experience 

 

Job-Sharing - if you are applying with a job-share partner, this must be stated in your cover letter, and you will also need to nominate this in the application form. 

• VPAT is not able to accommodate multi-job-share partner requests (ie sharing some jobs with one partner and some jobs with another partner).  You may only have one job-share partner in the match. 
  • It is OK to job-share for first or second half, and apply as full-time in the other half of the year - please just email us to let us know that this is the case
• You can put in for some roles that are job-share and some that are part-time standalone jobs.  To maximise the success for both partners, we recommend you put all the job-share roles first and then all the independent ones - or vice versa (although doing part time roles first runs the risk of one partner being allocated and the other not being allocated, as they will have fewer preferences in total).
• If you need help finding a job-share partner, please contact MWFU at RCH:   mwu.enquiries@rch.org.au

Part-time - some roles are specifically part-time and are listed like this on the department's page and in the preference list.  Other roles might be suitable for part-time, but you will need to contact those services to enquire about this PRIOR to making preferences as not every service can accommodate part-time applicants.  You can search for "Part Time" on the Jobs List tab of the portal to only see positions that are offered as part time.

 

Changing job preferences or required length of position:

• Prior to the application closing date: 
  • this can be done on the trainee portal application page 

 

• After the application closing date, but before allocations: 
  • If there are specific reasons for why you need to make changes, then you will need to email us to discuss your circumstances.   vpat.recruitment@gmail.com
    • Length of contract may be changed (ie going from a 12 month role to a 6 month role) - just email us and we will get this updated for you.
      • If you are dropping from a 12 month request to a 6 month request and you had preferenced combination roles, you may change your preferences to either of those health services for your 6 month role, but cannot add new preferences
    • Job preferences cannot be changed after the application closing date except in unusual/specific circumstances, and new sites cannot be added.  If there is a specific reason for changing preferences, please email us and we will work with you to determine the best way to approach this.

 

Withdrawing completely:

• This can be done on the trainee portal application page by simply entering the portal and clicking on the tab that indicates "withdraw"

 

3 month positions - these are not available via the VPAT portal.  All positions are either 6 months or 12 months in duration.  Positions commence in February (1st 6 months) and August (2nd 6 months) of each year.  

 

I don't see the job I wanted on here 

• Please contact the department you want to work for directly. 
• Not all jobs in Victoria are listed here. 
  • In particular, most sub-specialty positions are recruited directly by those departments. 
  • Even within one department or health service, some jobs are not recruited via this process for various reasons. 
• Please let us know if there are jobs that you think should be on here.

 

If you are having difficulties applying please email vpat.recruitment@gmail.com

 

 

Accreditation for Basic Trainees 

Please note that the Royal Australasian College of Physicians will not accredit Basic Trainees who are appointed to positions unless they are employed directly through a site with a Director of Paediatric Physician Training (DPPT).  Basic Trainees are seconded to other sites within the training network.  Currently you must be employed via RCH or Monash in order to have Basic Training time accredited.  This rule will be strictly enforced.

 

International Medical Graduates

Please note that you should contact the Royal Australasian College of Physicians to determine your pathway.  You should please indicate in your cover letter what requirements you have been asked to complete to help the Health Services determine whether their role will meet your needs.  You must also be registered with AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioners Registration Authority).