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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More from Ireland at www.thetruth.ie

Spycops Infiltrated Bloody Sunday March Organisers       printable version

18 Jun 2018: posted by the editor - Human Rights, United Kingdom, Northern Ireland

Report by campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com There are renewed calls for a Northern Ireland Inquiry after it has been revealed that an undercover officer from a disgraced political policing unit infiltrated Northern Irish civil rights groups, including the Bloody Sunday march organisers. The revelation came on Thursday 14 June from the Undercover Policing Inquiry, which is examining the 'spycops' units that targeted political campaigns for 50 years from 1968. Under the name 'Sean Lynch', the Metropolitan Police's Special Demonstration Squad undercover officer infiltrated several organisations from 1968-74. These included the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA), Irish Civil Rights Solidarity Campaign and Sinn Féin (London). NICRA was the organiser of the Bloody Sunday march in 1972 when the British army shot dead 14 unarmed demonstrators. Though mostly Metropolitan Police officers, some travelled throughout the UK and beyond. The public inquiry attracted criticism in 2015 when then-Home Secretary Theresa May limited it to events in England & Wales. Former Northern Irish justice ministers Claire Sugden and David Ford have both backed the call to extend it to the whole UK, but to no avail. This week's shock announcement may change that. The fact of the SDS' involvement in NICRA was not revealed to the Saville Inquiry of 2000-2010 that was supposed to fully examine Bloody Sunday. This mirrors the SDS' spying on the family of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence but failing to tell the subsequent Macpherson Inquiry. Officers have already been known to spy beyond the borders of England and Wales, but the fresh information about 'Sean Lynch', who is now deceased, shows the Met unit had an involved interest in the politics of Northern Ireland. The Home Office has rebuffed repeated requests from the Scottish Government for Scotland to be included in the Inquiry. In March, Amnesty called for it to extend to Northern Ireland. At that time only one spycops officer, Mark Jenner, was known to have been involved in Irish politics. The Police Service of Northern Ireland say local forces were 'completely blind' to the SDS officers' presence, and do not appear to have been given any information for use afterwards. PSNI's Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton said deploying undercover officers without local forces' risk assessments would be 'an act of madness'. Environmental activist Jason Kirkpatrick has been granted core participant status at the Undercover Policing Inquiry due to being spied on by officer Mark Kennedy - in Northern Ireland as well as England. In 2005 Kennedy took Kirkpatrick and fellow campaigner Kim Bryan on a speaking tour in Northern Ireland, with the officer paying the bills and driving them around. They held public events at Belfast City Church as well as a public "Environmental Pub Quiz" at Menagerie Bar in the Belfast Holy Lands. Kirkpatrick has launched a judicial review of the decision to exclude Northern Ireland from the Inquiry. He feels his 16 month wait for the case to come to court is extreme, and this week's announcement adds great weight to his case. "With these fresh revelations, it is clear that an arbitrarily limited inquiry that fails to take account of operations by their undercover police in Northern Ireland is nothing short of a whitewash," he explained. "The wait caused by Home Office delays to my current Northern Irish Judicial Review case is becoming absolutely unbearable." Kim Bryan said there can be no excuse for keeping the details hidden any longer. "Discovering the spycops infiltrated civil rights campaigns changes everything. Bloody Sunday was a pivotal event and yet the Met hid their involvement from the Inquiry. This might be the tip of the iceberg," she said. "The truth is long overdue. The Undercover Policing Inquiry must be extended to Northern Ireland". The Undercover Policing Inquiry was announced in 2014 after four years of revelations about Britain's undercover political police culminated in the discovery that they had spied on the family of Stephen Lawrence. Around 150 officers were deployed into a broad range of groups; peace campaigns, anti-racists, trade unions, the far left, the far right, environmentalists, animal rights and others. Officers lived for years at a time as activists; many were arrested and went to court under their fake identities. Many stole the identities of dead children to create a basis for their false identity. Perhaps most shockingly, the majority of profiled officers exposed so far had sexual relationships with women they spied on. These were often long-term, cohabiting, relationships that integrated them into families and planned lifetimes together. Four years since it was announced, the inquiry has yet to formally begin. It has what it describes as an 'ambitious' taerget of finishing in December 2023. 'Inquiry into undercover police actions in Northern Ireland moves step closer' https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/inquiry-into-undercover-police-actions-in-northern-ireland-moves-step-closer-35430921.html 1 -Undercover Policing Inquiry, 'Cover name released: "Sean Lynch" (dec'd)', 7 June 2018 https://twitter.com/ucpinquiry/status/1004664649407717376 2 -Undercover Policing Inquiry, Terms of Reference, 16 July 2015 https://www.ucpi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Terms-of-Reference.pdf 3 -BBC News, 'Pitchford Inquiry: Claire Sugden wants undercover police investigation extended to NI', 3 August 2016 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-36966637 4 -Alliance Party, 'Ford calls for wider undercover policing inquiry', 1 March 2018 https://allianceparty.org/article/2018/0011594/ford-calls-for-wider-undercover-policing-inquiry 5 -The Guardian, 'Police 'smear' campaign targeted Stephen Lawrence's friends and family', 24 June 2013 https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jun/23/stephen-lawrence-undercover-police-smears 6 -Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance, 'The Pitchford Inquiry's Geographical Blinkers', 30 October 2015 http://campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/2015/10/30/the-pitchford-inquirys-geographical-blinkers/ 7 -Scottish Government justice minister, 'Ministerial Statement: A Strategic Review of Undercover Policing', 7 February 2018 https://news.gov.scot/speeches-and-briefings/ministerial-statement-a-strategic-review-of-undercover-policing 8 -Amnesty, 'Undercover policing inquiry must be extended to Northern Ireland, say Amnesty', 1 March 2018 https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/undercover-policing-inquiry-must-be-extended-northern-ireland-say-amnesty 9 -Undercover Research Group, Mark Jenner: Irish Republican Interest http://powerbase.info/index.php/Mark_Jenner#Irish_Republican_interest 10 -BBC News, 'PSNI 'blind' to undercover Metropolitan Police officers operating in NI', 10 June 2016 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-36494895 11 -BBC News, 'Undercover officer Mark Kennedy 'monitored NI groups'', 22 December 2015 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-35156850 12 - Belfast Telegraph, 'Inquiry into undercover police actions in Northern Ireland moves step closer', 7 February 2017~ https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/inquiry-into-undercover-police-actions-in-northern-ireland-moves-step-closer-35430921.html   Tags: undercover police inquiry, spycops

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