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

Study evaluates net neutrality in EU       printable version

14 Feb 2019: posted by the editor - Internet news, European Union

By Iwona Laub, EDRi member Epicenter.works, Austria Two and a half years after the adoption of the guidelines confirming strong protection for net neutrality in Europe, Austrian EDRi member epicenter.works published a study on the enforcement and status quo of net neutrality. The study entitled "The Net Neutrality Situation in the EU: Evaluation of the First Two Years of Enforcement" examines whether telecom companies are violating net neutrality rules, how regulators are fulfilling their enforcement and supervision duties, and how this affects internet users across the continent. The study focuses on the most common net neutrality violation in Europe, the practice of “zero-rating”. For this purpose, epicenter.works conducted a complete survey of all zero-rating offers in Europe, including the applications that benefit from the special treatment of having their data excluded from monthly data cap. The study highlights two important findings: 1) that zero rating offers cost consumers more, and do not lead to decreased prices as initially expected; 2) that it's mostly American online companies who benefit from zero-rated offers (with only three European exceptions). For consumers, the most compelling finding was the fact that zero-rating offerings seem attractive, because they promise "free" services, but in the end they lead to an increase in the general price level. In markets with zero-rating practices, the price of data increased 2% year-over-year. In markets without zero-rating practices, the price of data decreased 8% year-over-year. The study finds that since Europe's net neutrality rules came into effect, zero-rating has spread to all but two EU countries with a total of 186 zero-rating offers in Europe. In some countries the price difference between the applications with special prices and the rest of the internet was up to 70-fold. Among the top 20 applications that benefit from zero-rating, only three are from Europe. Applications and services from EU countries are rarely zero-rated, which leads to the conclusion that the European Digital Single Market likely suffers from these net neutrality violations. The data indicates that most application providers only participate in one to three zero-rating offerings, which clearly shows that this system canot scale to a single market with over 200 mobile operators. In effect, the study shows how end-user choices are restricted and Europe's Digital Single Market has been fragmented by the new market entry barriers that telecom companies have created. Although regulators should have a coherent approach to the enforcement of net neutrality, wildly different approaches were found. Some of the rulings in Europe are even contradicting each other, for example in the area of port blocking or congestion management. In some countries the fines for telecom companies for net neutrality violations rise to nine-digit sums, and in others only to four-digit sums. In Portugal and Ireland there was no penalty provision to be found at all, while Ireland currently holds the chairmanship of the Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communication (BEREC) in charge of the net neutrality reform. Another key finding of the study is that despite BEREC guidelines requiring telecom companies to provide at least a minimum level of transparency on internet speeds, companies are not publishing that information, and regulators are turning a blind eye. The study also provides information about the upcoming discussion about 5G within the scope of net neutrality , as this argument the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) is already being laid on the table in the upcoming net neutrality review. The report can be downloaded on epicenter.works' website, and all of the data sets have been released as open data. The study was supported by Mozilla and the Austrian Chamber of Labour. Epicenter.works https://en.epicenter.works/  Report: The Net Neutrality Situation in the EU (29.01.2019) https://en.epicenter.works/document/1522  Survey of all differential pricing offers in the EEA (29.01.2019) https://en.epicenter.works/document/1521  Net neutrality wins in Europe! (29.08.2016) https://edri.org/net-neutrality-wins-europe/  Net Neutrality vs. 5G: What to expect from the upcoming EU review? (05.12.2018) https://edri.org/net-neutrality-vs-5g-what-to-expect-from-the-upcoming-eu-review/  Tags: net neutrality european union

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