Northern Ireland Apprenticeship Week- Call for Company Events
Manufacturing NI sits on the regional planning committee for Apprenticeship Week which will be held on 6th-10th February 2023. We would like to encourage manufacturers to hosts events or activities to coincide with this week. Some examples include;
* Social media activity highlighting the role of apprenticeships in the organisation w/ role models
* Student competitions
* Job sampling / apprenticeship talks / job fairs
* School site visits / open days
* Meet the parents Q&A

Click here for the 2023 proforma (https://www.manufacturingni.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Blank-Proforma-NIAW-2023-inc.-feedback.docx?mc_cid=7b80d524b5&mc_eid=UNIQID) . Detailed within this form you will see that it will need you to return it to The Department of Economy by COB on Friday 2nd December 2022 at the latest. Your public facing event details will then be listed on NIDirect in preparation for the Department’s Press Release which will launch the NIAW.

------------------------------------------------------------
Search begins for new board members for the Labour Relations Agency
The Department for the Economy (DfE) has launched a public appointment competition to recruit four new board members to the board of the Labour Relations Agency (LRA).

The LRA is a non-departmental public body with responsibility for promoting the improvement of employment relations in Northern Ireland. The LRA contributes to organisational effectiveness by providing impartial and independent services for promoting good employment practices and preventing and resolving disputes.

The Department wishes to appeal to people of all ages from a wide range of backgrounds and experience across the community, voluntary, business or public sector, who can bring a wide range of skills and experience to the role. DfE would particularly welcome applications from females, people with a disability, those from minority ethnic communities and young people, as they are currently under-represented on the board. The Department is operating a Guaranteed Interview Scheme in this competition for applicants with a disability.

This competition will be of particular interest to people who wish to develop their skills as part of a board and are willing to learn. Previous experience of serving on a board is not necessary as new appointees will undergo an induction programme, as well as being offered peer support.

The rate of remuneration for the LRA board members is £5,643 per annum, for which they will be required to attend the monthly board meeting and undertake other occasional duties on behalf of the LRA. The board members can claim reasonable travel and subsistence costs while undertaking board duties.For further information or to receive an application pack visit: https://www.economy-ni.gov.uk/lra-members?mc_cid=7b80d524b5&mc_eid=UNIQID

This is an open competition which involves a simple application form and interview. The closing date for receipt of applications is 12 noon (GMT) on 24 November 2022

https://www.manufacturingni.org/invest-ni-launch-ambition-to-grow-programme/?mc_cid=7b80d524b5&mc_eid=UNIQID

------------------------------------------------------------
Ambition to Grow
Ambition to Grow is Invest NI's exciting new regionally focused competition aimed at innovative, ambitious businesses is now open for applications.

40 spaces are available and successful applicants will be eligible to apply for funding up to a maximum of £45,000, broken down as follows:
* £5,000 per new job (a minimum of three) created over and above existing employment levels within the business (to a maximum of £30,000).
* £10,000 towards business development activities, where the amount of support provided shall be no more than 50% of the cost eligible activities listed in the application.
* £5,000 on the completion of an export health check and development of an export plan, to the satisfaction of Invest NI.

This initiative has been designed with businesses which are not currently Invest NI client managed customers in mind, and it is anticipated to be extremely beneficial to businesses throughout Northern Ireland.

For more information on the competition please visit the Ambition to Grow webpage (https://www.investni.com/support-for-business/ambition-to-grow?mc_cid=7b80d524b5&mc_eid=UNIQID) .

Closing date for applications is 12 noon on Friday 25 November 2022.

https://www.economy-ni.gov.uk/apprenticeawards2023?mc_cid=256636b6f3&mc_eid=UNIQID&mc_cid=7b80d524b5&mc_eid=UNIQID

------------------------------------------------------------
NI Apprenticeship Awards 2023 Launched
Nominations are now being sought for the prestigious NIAA2023.
The NIAA2023 will recognise and showcase excellence and best practice in the participation and delivery of Apprenticeships. Finalists will be selected and invited to a special awards ceremony on Wednesday 29th March 2023.
These awards honour:
* Valued Apprentices who are making a significant contribution to their workplace and have shown a dedication to excel in their professional development and learning;
* Influential partnerships between Employers and Training Providers that support the continuous growth of skills development in Northern Ireland; and,
* For the first year, Mentors who provide an outstanding contribution to the Apprenticeship programmes.

Applications are now open for five award categories:
* Apprentice Award (Levels 2-3);
* Higher Level Apprentice Award (Level 4+);
* Large Employer in partnership with a Training Provider Award (employers with more than 250 employees);
* Small to Medium-sized Enterprise in partnership with a Training Provider Award (employers with less than 250 employees); and,
* Outstanding Mentor Award.

All nominees for the Apprentice and Higher Level Apprentice Awards must have been on the ApprenticeshipsNI or Higher Level Apprenticeship Programme in 2022.
Completed nomination forms must be returned before 12:00 noon on Friday 18th November 2022 to: niaa.2023@economy-ni.gov.uk (mailto:niaa.2023@economy-ni.gov.uk)
Full details on application criteria for each of the awards, and how to apply, are available on the Department’s website at:
https://www.economy-ni.gov.uk/apprenticeshipawards2023?mc_cid=7b80d524b5&mc_eid=UNIQID

(https://www.economy-ni.gov.uk/apprenticeshipawards2023?mc_cid=256636b6f3&mc_eid=UNIQID&mc_cid=7b80d524b5&mc_eid=UNIQID)

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/londonderrychamberofcommerce/786714/?mc_cid=7b80d524b5&mc_eid=UNIQID

------------------------------------------------------------
2022 North West Annual Future of Energy Conference
Thursday 17th November
Everglades Hotel, Derry

This full day conference is jointly hosted by the Chambers of Commerce in Londonderry and Letterkenny, kindly supported by the North West Regional Development Group, and will focus on the opportunities for investment, growth, innovation and job creation and also address the challenges to businesses of rising energy costs.

This event aims to
* Encourage cross border collaboration in the energy sector to the benefit of the whole North West city region
* Provide a platform for knowledge transfer and sharing to support economic growth of the North West region
* Support business growth and innovation in the energy sector
* Support NW businesses to meet sustainability goals in the move to net zero

BUY TICKETS HERE
(https://www.tickettailor.com/events/londonderrychamberofcommerce/786714/?mc_cid=7b80d524b5&mc_eid=UNIQID)Direct

news input items

More from Ireland at www.thetruth.ie

Deceived women launch sexism complaint to UN against UK government undercover policing       printable version

07 Dec 2017: posted by the editor - Human Rights, United Kingdom

By Police Spies Out of Lives Seven women psychologically and sexually abused by undercover policemen infiltrating UK protest groups have lodged a complaint to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The women complain that the United Kingdom Government has failed to prevent institutionalised discrimination against women by the police. All the women suffered serious psychological harm through having been deceived into long term intimate relationships with undercover policemen. These intimate relationships involved five different undercover police officers over a period spanning nearly 25 years. In one of the first complaints of its kind made to the committee, the case stands to trigger a potential investigation and finding against the UK government. The Metropolitan Police issued an apology to the women in November 2015, but despite this has refused to provide any disclosure or information about the relationships. In addition, the UK government has failed to prosecute or apply any sanctions to any of the officers concerned or their supervisors, and refused to amend UK law to explicitly make such relationships an offence. Helen Steel: "Our central aim in bringing this case is to make sure that these abusive relationships are not allowed to happen again. The repeated use of women in this way by undercover policemen is a form of discrimination against women and a barrier to women's rights to participate in protest activity." ‘Lisa’, deceived into a 6-year relationship by undercover officer Mark Kennedy, commented: “In signing up to this Convention, the UK committed itself to work to end discrimination against women. If the committee finds against the UK it will be a huge embarrassment and will shine a spotlight on the institutional sexism in the police and the government’s ongoing failure to outlaw these abusive practices.” Harriet Wistrich, solicitor for the Applicants, said: “CEDAW has a complaints procedure which is broad in reach, enabling the women to cite gender based violence, gender stereotyping and the impact on reproductive rights, as part of a pattern of institutionalised discrimination by the State in this case.” The case has been launched to coincide with the 16 days of action called by the United Nations that commenced with International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25th November and culminates in Human Rights Day on 10th December. Background information and notes: 1. The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was adopted in 1979 by the UN general Assembly.  A Committee of 23 independent experts on women’s rights from around the world monitors the implementation of CEDAW.  The UK ratified the Optional Protocol to CEDAW in 2004. This enables individuals who have been subjected to discrimination under the convention and exhausted all domestic remedies to make complaints. However, since ratification, only three complaints have been made to the CEDAW committee and all held to be inadmissible. 2. Text of MPS apology to women in Nov 2015 ** https://policespiesoutoflives.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fe3c7fd8ef658a93bf290c4fa&id=36759ce33c&e=c58b900c7e 3. Women's statement on Police apology ** https://policespiesoutoflives.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fe3c7fd8ef658a93bf290c4fa&id=0f74a1f390&e=c58b900c7e  4. Further information on CEDAW ** https://policespiesoutoflives.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fe3c7fd8ef658a93bf290c4fa&id=a6b4a0a39d&e=c58b900c7e 5. International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women ** https://policespiesoutoflives.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fe3c7fd8ef658a93bf290c4fa&id=c1f6b70f07&e=c58b900c7e  Summary of the petition to the UN Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women 1. The individuals named in the communication were, at the relevant times, all involved as activists and/ or associated through friendship networks with political groupings organised around issues of environmental and/or social justice campaigns. They were deceived into entering long-term intimate relationships with male undercover police officers during the period from 1987 to 2009. 2. The undercover officers who targeted the women were all members of covert operation units under the control of The Metropolitan Police in London. Their remit was to infiltrate social and political movements in order to gather intelligence and thereby predict and control the impact of protest activity.  There were two such units involved, the first was a highly secretive small unit, called the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) which was first created in 1968, at the time of demonstrations around the Vietnam War and finally disbanded in 2008. The second unit, which operated nationally was formed in 1999 and known as the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU), it was disbanded in 2011. However, successor units were established.  Given their secretive nature, little was known about the existence, activities, policies, methodologies and operations of these units at the relevant time. These units were explicitly intended for the purposes of intelligence gathering, not for the purposes of investigating crime. The individual deployments of undercover officers lasted an average 4-5 years. The length of placement increased risk of gross intrusion into individuals’ lives, which was disproportionate to the purpose of the surveillance. 3. Undercover officers from the units adopted false identities and pretended to be dedicated political activists.  Using their false identities, some or many of these officers pursued long term and intimate sexual relationships with the applicants and other women. It is believed these relationships were undertaken to assist the officers in building and maintaining their undercover identities as it increased their credibility and therefore the trust afforded to them by other activists. The relationships lasted between 7 months and 9 years. One of the officers fathered children with one of the applicants. It is known that another of the officers fathered a child with another targeted woman who is not an applicant in this case. The women all suffered psychiatric/psychological injury as a result of the relationships and the discovery that their partner (or former partner) was (or had been) an undercover officer. The impact of this grossly violating deception also seriously undermined the women’s ability to engage in political activity. It has had an undermining impact on their ability to form close personal relationships and, as a consequence, some of the women have been deprived of the opportunity to have biological children. 4. None of the women have been provided with full disclosure or information about how these relationships were allowed to take place or what information about their private lives is now held by the UK state as a result. The police officers or senior officers involved have not been subject to any criminal or disciplinary sanction as a result of the abuses committed. Articles relied upon 5. The applicants of this communication allege breaches articles 1, 2 (a), (b), (d) and (f), 3, 5, 7 (c) 16 (a), (b) and (e) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (‘CEDAW’) arising out of the sanctioning and/or failure to provide effective protection from undercover police officers who were sanctioned and/or not prevented from entering into sexual relations with the applicants. Discrimination 6. The police practice of allowing or instructing undercover police officers to have and maintain emotional, familial and sexual relations with women whilst deceiving them as to the officer’s true identity, in order to collect information or assist in disguising the officer’s true identity, is a policy that was directly discriminatory towards women (the ‘Practice and/or Policy’). The Practice and/or Policy overwhelmingly affected women. Throughout the entire 43-year period in which the police units were operational, almost all the incidents that are known of where undercover officers have formed long term intimate sexual relationships with those involved or connected to groups that they  were spying on, have involved male officers targeting women. There is little or no  indication of men being targeted in the same way and in the event there are any exceptions, the practice was overwhelmingly one involving male officers targeting women.  Furthermore, the impact on women would be different for a number of reasons, including in particular the significant impact on the victims’ reproductive rights. 7. Under Article 1 of CEDAW, the term ‘discrimination against women’ means ‘any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.’ 8. The actions of the state by deploying or sanctioning the Practice and/or Policy complained of caused severe harm and damage, in some cases irreparably so, to the rights of the applicants. It impinged upon a broad range of the fundamental rights of the applicants, including their physical integrity and was a gross violation of the applicants’ privacy and dignity. 9. The implementation of the policy and or practice was discrimination by the state . There was both a sex and gendered aspect to the discrimination. The policy and/or practice deployed by the police, disempowered the women involved as it undermined their autonomy and exploited the social context of male-female sexual and familial relations and the authors emotional and sexual responses within this context. 10. This was sexual harassment/gender- based violence . The officers’ actions violated the Applicants’ bodily and emotional integrity and showed complete disrespect for the Applicants’ human dignity. They caused the Applicants deep humiliation, degradation and anguish and have left the Applicants with lasting mental health problems. 11. The state party did not act in such a way as to ensure that the organs of the state refrained from discriminatory conduct Article 2 (d) . Nor did the state party adopt legislative measures to prevent the discrimination (Articles 2 (a), (b), (c) and (f)) . 12. The absence of legislation, judicial rulings, policy and/or guidance prohibiting undercover officers from engaging in sexual relationships with women they are targeting as a result of their political activity prevents the full development and advancement of women for the purpose of guaranteeing them the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms on a basis of equality with men (Article 3). 13. The State Party did not prevent gender stereotyping. Because stereotyped views will not change by themselves, it is necessary to develop an active policy in which every legal measure and every public policy is critically examined to ensure the elimination of fixed gender stereotypes. The applicants were subjected to gendered stereotyping in the conduct of the undercover police officers who targeted them. The pretence of intimacy, both emotional and sexual, was carried out in behaviour calculated to engage the women’s attentions and commitment (Article 5 (c)) . 14. State Parties are obligated to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the political and public life of the country (Article 7) . The fear of being deceived into an intimate relationship with an undercover officer inhibits the exercise of their fundamental freedoms of political association and to fully participate in public life. 15. State Parties are required to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family (Article 16) . The policy and/or practice, and the resulting relationships with officers deprived the women of their right to freely decide on the number and spacing of their children and who they entered into private, intimate and sexual relations with. 16. The State Party has not provided full reparation . The remedies sought are set out at P.130. Tags: undercover policing, CEDAW, Police Spies Out of Lives

Back to headlines comments (0) recommend

>Local comment

Name:	Remember me
E-mail:	(optional)
Captcha

  What’s this?

Advanced Poll

What should happen with Northern Ireland? Become independent Rejoin the Republic of Ireland Continue with Assembly Results More polls

Other news from the region
Direct news input story index
At Least 32% of U.S. Mass Shooters Trained to Shoot by U.S. Military - 10 May 2023 filed by the editor - General, Features, International, United States