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Candidate Eligibility
The Recruitment of Policy Leaders (RPL) Program recruits high-calibre master's or doctoral graduates to work on Canada's public policy challenges.
How RPL works
Our partially assessed pool includes candidates from all areas of study who have the aptitude and skills to tackle Canada's public policy challenges.
We take advanced educational and professional merit into account when choosing applicants who have demonstrated their leadership abilities through academic, work and volunteer experience enabling them to take on significant responsibilities in shaping Canadian policies.
Candidates must have received a graduate level distinction or a graduate level scholarship. Examples include the Rhodes, Trudeau, or Fulbright scholarships, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) awards, Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC) scholarships, the Governor General's Gold Medal, etc.
They must also have demonstrated a breadth and depth of policy-relevant experience through their academic program or work experience, and have significant extra-curricular achievements. These individuals may be appointed through a non-advertised external recruitment process.
Successful candidates pass through a minimum of two rounds of interviews. The first interviews occur in numerous locations across Canada and internationally, or may be conducted by phone and involve a senior official and policy advisors. These interviews are followed by reference checks.
The second round of interviews takes place in Ottawa with senior officials across the federal government. These interviews are based on the candidate's interests and background, as well as on departmental interests.
The RPL Program covers travel costs for the second interviews.
The PSC assesses applicants for the following:
- Knowledge of Canada's policy system, its challenges and priorities
- Analytical thinking
- Judgment
- Communication skills
- Creativity
- Interpersonal skills
- Ethics and values
- Leadership and initiative
Hiring organizations must further assess candidates against the organization's Statement of Merit Criteria to ensure that they meet all the merit criteria including those stated in the Qualification Standards of the respective occupational group and all the conditions of employment (e.g. security).
Based on their experience and qualifications, departments can place RPL candidates into the salary classification that best meets their needs-typically in the EX-minus 3 to EX-minus 1 range.
Past RPL candidates have engaged at the ES, EN, LA, and PM categories. Representatives of the RPL program can provide recommendations based on comparisons with similar candidates.
