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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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European Union should deploy greater transparency in decision making       printable version

29 Jan 2018: posted by the editor - European Union

By Hans de Zwart, EDRi member Bits of Freedom, the Netherlands “You can’t uphold the law by breaking the law” The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) invited EDRi member Bits of Freedom to speak at their annual New Year’s Seminar. Hans De Zwart, Director of Bits of Freedom, talked about how the rule of law can only be defended by the European Union taking an exemplary role including by strictly adhering to the rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union and urgently taking action to be more transparent in its legislative processes. “Thank you very much for the opportunity to talk about these urgent topics. It is a pleasure to be here at the ALDE new year’s seminar. “For us, it might be stating the obvious that a Union can only successfully protect democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights if it performs an exemplary role on all these points. And unfortunately, it is currently also obvious that the EU is not yet fulfilling that role. Two points need to be stressed. For one the EU should vigorously respect the rulings of the European Court of Justice and secondly, the EU must become (even) more transparent in its legislative processes. “So if we take a bird’s-eye view, we can see for example that the Court of Justice has ruled twice against data retention and those rulings have been wilfully ignored (meaning that in the Netherlands we had to go to a Dutch court to get the unlawful retention of data stopped). “We have seen the Court of Justice of the EU (thanks to tireless work by key ALDE MEPs like Sophie in’t Veld) rule against the proposed deal between Canada and the EU on PNR, the registration and profiling of air passengers. But the consequences of this ruling for the EU/Australia and EU/US agreements have been left wilfully unexplored. “We have seen the Court of Justice rule against the mandatory filtering of internet access and social media services while at the same time seeing this ruling being explicitly circumvented through the introduction of an upload filter in the proposed Copyright Directive. “We’ve seen the EU adopt the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which requires that restrictions on our rights have to be necessary and provided for by the law, while also seeing the Europol Regulation giving unaccountable power to Europol’s Internet Referral Unit to make referrals not based on the law, but based on terms of service for the “voluntary consideration” of internet companies. There is no review process for these referrals, no statistics on subsequent investigations and — ironically in light of the data retention demands for records of innocent people — no retention of the associated evidence. “When it comes to transparency we have seen a shift from the traditional treaty-based decision-making process of legislation in the EU towards a non-democratic, non-accountable and non-transparent process of legislating: the trilogues. “The EU Ombudsman has demanded more transparency around the trilogues. She proposes that the documents in and around the trilogue negotiations — the trilogue dates, the initial positions, the agendas, the “four column documents”, the notes, the list of political decision makers involved and the final compromise texts — should all be made available to the public. “This too is underpinned by a decision of the EU Court of Justice which states that the ability of EU citizens to find out the considerations that underpin legislative action is a precondition for the effective exercise of their democratic rights. “And very recently the Dutch COSAC delegation has also recommended to make the EU more transparent to its citizens. Their prime recommendation is, once again, for the EU to stick to its own law, in this case the Transparency Regulation and thus make legislative documents public in a systematic way and without any delay. Too often is too hard for people like me — civil society as the representation of citizens — to get access to the documents that they need to do their work. “So my ask here today for this Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe is twofold, and I ask it with urgency:  Firstly, the Union can’t afford the current lackadaisical attitude towards the rulings of the European Court of Justice. Due process starts with respecting the law. Or in other words: you can’t uphold the law by breaking it. “And secondly, ALDE should support the Dutch perspective on transparency of the EU and at a minimum argue for a full implementation of the European Ombudsman’s position on the trilogues. “Because we can only develop a Europe of values by defending those values when it is difficult. And we develop a Europe of values by making decisions in public and not in closed-door trilogues. We should empower citizens by making the institutional changes necessary to ensure that citizens are truly heard.” Tags: European Union, European Court of Justice

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