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

FIFA: A World Cup Without the World       printable version

17 Jul 2026: posted by the editor - Sport, International, United States

New York, July 16, 2026 In a report titled FIFA: A World Cup Without the World - Assessing Human Rights Impacts of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, the Sport & Rights Alliance said: “The joy and celebration on display at the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup should not distract from the unprecedented exclusion, discrimination and misuse of power the U.S. government is conducting away from the spotlight.” On a press statement, the Sport & Rights Alliance said: “Players, fans and communities at the 2026 World Cup have created countless moments of undeniable joy, inspiration, and unity,” said Minky Worden , director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch. “But beyond these heartwarming stories, this World Cup has been played against a backdrop of the U.S. government’s abusive immigration crackdown and a failure by FIFA to uphold its own human rights standards.” Despite FIFA’s promise of the “most inclusive” World Cup in history , the U.S. government’s stringent and at times discriminatory visa policies complicated player travel and shut out countless fans, workers, and families – as seen in the high-profile cases of Somali referee Omar Artan , the mother of Cabo Verde’s goalkeeper , and the Democratic Republic of Congo superfan ‘Lumumba Vea’ , as well as in countless other cases that did not make headline news. “From our monitoring efforts, we have gathered little to no evidence of ticketholders from Africa and Asia who actually obtained visas to come to the United States,” said Ronan Evain , executive director of Football Supporters Europe . “The diverse crowds were almost entirely composed of local diaspora communities or people with dual citizenship who did not need visas to attend, masking FIFA’s failures to ensure a World Cup that actually included the world.” The Sport & Rights Alliance wrote to FIFA asking how many fans and journalists were able to facilitate access to priority visas via the FIFA PASS , but FIFA has yet to respond. The travel concerns extended to LGBTI communities and fans as well, many of whom decided not to travel to the tournament out of fear for their personal safety. This vulnerability was compounded by many host cities whose FIFA-mandated "human rights plans" glaringly failed to even mention protections or safety protocols for LGBTI+ people. "Due to anti-trans immigration policies and rising anti-LGBTI rhetoric and policies across the U.S., countless queer football fans who dream of attending the World Cup had to make the painful decision to stay home,” said Lily Dong Li Rosengard , senior specialist on gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics at ILGA World . “FIFA promised a celebration of diversity and inclusion, but did very little to make this a reality.” Press freedom watchdogs had to conduct extensive safety interventions for journalists navigating both the hostile domestic rhetoric and the complicated visa restrictions during their tournament coverage. "Journalists faced a broad range of challenges to cover this World Cup due to an increasingly hostile environment for reporters, particularly in the U.S.,” said Gypsy Guillén Kaiser , Chief Global Affairs Officer at the Committee to Protect Journalists . “Ahead of the tournament, we conducted an extraordinary number of safety trainings for journalists who cover every aspect of the game. This cannot be the new norm for planning coverage. FIFA must guarantee press freedom, including country entry, which was a marked barrier this year." The 2026 Men’s World Cup also exposed a critical debate about players facing ongoing criminal trials or serious allegations of sexual violence. In 2025, the Sport & Rights Alliance released a report, “ No one wants to talk about it ,” which gathered the experiences and perspectives of people impacted by abuse in sport on this topic, revealing how a pattern of inaction and silence from sport governing bodies harms victims and survivors. While FIFA’s Safeguarding Code of Conduct highlights that players and officials must declare any investigation or conviction for a sexual or other violent offence, it is not known whether FIFA undertook any actions as a result. “It’s time for FIFA to finally take the widespread problem of abuse in sport seriously,” said Andrea Florence , executive director of the Sport & Rights Alliance . “Survivors are calling on sports bodies to listen to impacted people, communicate transparently, and implement a clear, consistent policy that acknowledges the impact of giving a global platform to athletes accused of sexual offences.” Violence and discrimination took place beyond the spotlight of the World Cup as well. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carried out an unprecedented wave of raids across the country, detaining up to 10,000 people in just a five-day period and culminating in fatal shootings of immigrants by ICE officers in Houston, Texas , and Biddeford, Maine . "As the world was captivated by the knockout stages, the U.S. government conducted a terrifying surge in militarized immigration enforcement far away from stadium lights that impacted tens of thousands of our neighbors,” said Daniel Noroña , Americas Advocacy Director, Amnesty International USA . “We cannot allow this pattern of systemic violence by a World Cup host country to be sportswashed and forgotten. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastian Guerrero should still be alive and their home countries of Mexico and Colombia should be celebrating the performance of their national teams rather than mourning the losses of their countrymen at the hands of ICE.” This rights-abusing Trump administration has leveraged the World Cup for its political ends in a number of ways, including by promoting explicit anti-immigrant and xenophobic rhetoric alongside images of the U.S. Men’s National Team (USMNT) – many of whom are immigrants or the children of immigrants. President Trump’s intervention with the FIFA President in the case of USMNT’s Folarin Balogun was also one of the most controversial match-related moments of the tournament. "FIFA and the Trump administration have weaponized the 2026 World Cup for political purposes, from Trump’s receipt of the FIFA Peace Prize, to anti-immigration social media posts by the Department of Homeland Security, and the president's political intervention to ask to overturn a U.S. player's red card,” said Jules Boykoff , author of Red Card: The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing, and the FIFA Greed Machine and professor at Pacific University. “The World Cup has shown us that sports are politics by other means.” In the coming months, the Sport & Rights Alliance will release a report detailing these human rights issues, ranging from discriminatory visa denials to immigration crackdowns and celebration of players accused of sexual violence. With the Los Angeles Olympics around the corner in 2028, it is time for the world of sport to move from voluntary human rights “guidelines” to real accountability. Tags: World Cup, exclusion, discrimination, misuse of power, Sport & Rights Alliance

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
Victims of spycops abuse demand Home Office scrap ‘consultation’ - 22 Jul 2026 filed by the editor - United Kingdom
FIFA: A World Cup Without the World - 17 Jul 2026 filed by the editor - Sport, International, United States
US Ambassador to Belgium expels journalists from celebration meeting - 02 Jul 2026 filed by the editor - Journalism, United States, Belgium
Jessie Buckley and Hamnet Academy Award nomination - 22 Jan 2026 filed by the editor - Entertainment, Showbiz, Arts, Ireland
The demise of 'free speech' - 18 Sep 2025 filed by the editor - Opinion
UN genocide report puts Starmer in the dock - 18 Sep 2025 filed by the editor - International, United Kingdom
Israel and International Law - 20 Aug 2025 filed by the editor - Opinion
A Perspective of Years - 11 Aug 2025 filed by the editor - Opinion