Calltakers with ESTA are the first point of contact for Triple Zero (000) callers needing emergency assistance from Victoria's Emergency Service Organisations (ESO’s).  Dispatchers provide the interface with our ESO partners that ensure emergency assistance is provided as quickly and effectively as possible.

These are challenging roles that require a capacity to work within rigid and defined processes and manage calls and callers that ensure the right information is communicated to the ESO’s when an emergency situation arises.  There are no prerequisite qualifications for employment as either a Calltaker or Dispatcher and ESTA provides the accredited training to get you job ready.  Accordingly, the pay and conditions have been structured to attract and reward the right people.

ESTA has 3 State Emergency Communications Centres (SECC’s) located at Burwood East (Fire & Ambulance), Melbourne CBD (Police & SES) and Ballarat (CFA, SES & Police).

While ESTA accepts expressions of interest for employment at any time through our careers@esta.vic.gov.au email link and by post or facsimile, it is preferred if applications for employment are submitted in response to press and internet advertising for specific recruitment campaigns.

Recruitment campaigns are run regularly in each SECC in response to needs generated by employee separations, changing business needs and organisational growth.  New recruits are required to initially undertake and successfully complete accredited training of varying duration depending on the ESO they will support at each of our SECC’s.  Full details of the training commitment are outlined in the Applicant Information Kit (see link below).  Training is programmed to commence at various times during the year.

Recruits for our Ambulance, Police and CFA response teams commence employment as a Trainee Calltaker and become a Calltaker Level 1 on successfully completing training and are advance to Calltaker Level 2 on the anniversary of their date of commencement.  Qualified, competent and experienced Ambulance, Police and CFA Calltakers are eligible to apply for Dispatcher training as part of their career progression.  Again, full details are in the Applicant Information Kit.

Applicants successful for Metropolitan Fire opportunities are recruited as a Dispatcher and are trained in both call taking and dispatch within 6 months of commencement and, similar to training for Calltakers and Dispatchers for other services, training is both theoretical and on-the-job and includes periods to consolidate the skills learned.

Our recruitment process has a number of activities that are also described in full detail in the Applicant Information Kit referred to earlier in this page.  This process can take 8 to 10 weeks to complete and includes:

• Initial screening including the applicants response to the Key Selection Criteria;
• Telephone screening;
• A typing test;
• Attendance at a half day group Assessment Centre;
• Personality testing;
• Police background check;
• A behavioural descriptive interview;
• Hearing and vision assessments against ESTA specific criteria; and
• Reference checking.

• Your interest in being a Calltaker or Dispatcher and in working for ESTA;
• Your current tested typing speed (nett);
• Giving attention to detail and having a strong sense of urgency;
• Your ability to manage demanding workloads and competing priorities in a high pressure time critical environment;
• Having a demonstrated multi-tasking ability;
• Your capacity to process and manage highly emotive and stressful calls;
• Your experience in using Windows based systems and/or telephony and radio communications; and;
• How you display a proven commitment to working a rotational roster, including weekends, public holidays and nights

The details of the salaries offered during training, when qualified and when subsequently advanced are outlined in full in the Applicant Information Kit.  In addition to those base salaries, ESTA contributes 9% superannuation to an approved fund in accordance with the relevant legislation and you could expect to earn an additional 30% in penalty rates for night, weekend and public holiday shifts for working a normal shift pattern over a 12 month period.

You will also have the opportunity to benefit from ESTA's commitment to ongoing training and development and to take on additional responsibilities over time as a mentor, workplace trainer, Dispatcher or Team Leader that also attract additional remuneration.

If you are interested in employment with ESTA, your first action should be to download a copy of the Applicant Information Kit that includes further information about call taking and dispatch, our recruitment process and how best to prepare and submit an application.

Typing speeds can be tested and confirmed at www.typingtest.com