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Ben Chifley Scholarship

Thursday, 24 March 2011 15:47 Jeff Daley

Ben Chifley Scholarship

In 2011 ten Scholarships are available for 1st year apprentices from country New South Wales.

The Scholarships commenced in 2009 and are awarded by the Premier of New South Wales in the middle of the year. Each Scholarship is valued at $5,000 for every year the recipient is completing their apprenticeship up to a maximum of $15,000. At least two of the Scholarships will be awarded to people of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background each year. In 2010, four North Coast apprentices received scholarships.

Who is Eligible

Apprentices who live and work in country NSW and are Australian citizens are eligible to be nominated. See the Guidelines for full eligibility criteria.

How to Nominate

Apprentices have to be nominated by their employer and trade teacher or registered training organisation. If you employ an apprentice or you’re a trade teacher and know an apprentice who has aptitude for their trade but needs some financial help, please download the attached Nomination From and booklet outlining the Ben Chifley Guidelines

Assessment Criteria

Scholarships will be awarded on the basis of:

hardship
aptitude for vocational education and training, and
the nominee’s trade in an identified skill shortage area in NSW and/or the nominee’s local area.

About the Assessment Criteria

Any relevant evidence can be provided to demonstrate hardship and aptitude – it’s solely up to the apprentice, the employer and trade teacher.

For example:

"hardship" could take into account issues such as financial circumstances, family situation (eg carer status) and/or generational unemployment. Equity criteria could also be used to demonstrate hardship eg Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background, people with a disability, mature-aged people
"aptitude" for vocational education and training could be demonstrated by past performance in the apprenticeship, participation in trade skills competitions, references from employers attesting to the nominee’s skills, school results or assessments in trade subjects, examples of the nominee’s work, level of experience
skills shortage areas are those trade occupations identified in the National Skills Needs List available at www.australianapprenticeships.gov.au

Nominations Close

For apprentices who will be in their first year of their apprenticeship in 2011 nominations close on 29 April 2011.

Winners will be announced by the Premier of NSW and State Training Services will notify successful nominees in writing.

https://www.training.nsw.gov.au/individuals/apprenticeships_traineeships/financial_help/ben_chifley_scholarships.html

Help for small businesses to become more family friendly

Thursday, 25 February 2010 16:16 Jeff Daley

The Hon Julia Gillard MP

Minister for Education. Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations

Minister for Social Inclusion

Deputy Prime Minister

25 February, 2010

Media release

Help for small businesses to become more family friendly

The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Julia Gillard, and Special Adviser for Work and Family Balance and Pay Equity, Senator Jacinta Collins, today encouraged small business to apply for grants of up to $15,000 to help them better balance work and family.

From today, eligible small businesses with less than 15 employees can apply for the grants to put in place family-friendly arrangements in their workplaces.

The second round grants form part of the Australian Government’s $12 million Fresh Ideas for Work and Family Grants Program.

Successful recipients of grants in Round 1 of this program put in place practices like agreements between employees and employers for flexible working hours or agreements for some employees to work from home in order to spend time with their kids. Some businesses installed family rooms within their offices.

Research shows that these kind of flexible working arrangements help businesses to retain their valuable staff, reduce turnover costs, increase productivity and improve staff morale and customer satisfaction.

The program gives small businesses and their employees an opportunity to work together to address work and family issues, and allows them to bring about important and practical solutions to address the unique challenges they face.

The Australian Government recognises that small businesses will be a key driver of social inclusion and equity by supporting family-friendly initiatives.

The program is one way in which the Government is helping employers and employees manage their work and home lives more effectively to ensure high productivity is balanced with support for working families.

The Fair Work System also provides all working families with access to a number of entitlements to help them balance work and family.

These are:

12 months unpaid parental leave for new parents - one of the ten legislated National Employment Standards. Like annual leave, public holidays and redundancy pay, unpaid parental leave is guaranteed to all employees covered by the new national Fair Work system.
A parent’s right to request flexible work arrangements like returning to work part time or an additional 12 months unpaid leave to help care for children under school age. The ‘right to request’ will help Australia maximise workforce participation and ensure employers can retain skilled and experienced employees in the future. An employer can refuse a request on ‘reasonable business grounds’ but must provide their reasons for the refusal in writing. A refusal without reasons is insufficient.

The Australian Government is also introducing legislation for a government-funded paid parental leave scheme later this year to help working families better balance work and family responsibilities.

Applications for the second funding round of the Fresh Ideas for Work and Family Grants Program will close on 31 March 2010.

To apply for a grant, small businesses can go to www.deewr.gov.au/freshideas to complete the online application form or call the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94 (open 8.00am–6.00pm, Monday to Friday) for further information.

Bellinger Valley Hospital

BELLINGEN SHIRE COUNCIL

MEDIA RELEASE

Council To Take Hospital Concerns to Health Minister

(8 February 2010)

Bellingen Shire Council’s February Council Meeting has been put back a day to enable a Council deputation to meet NSW Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Carmel Tebbutt to convey concerns about service reductions at the Bellinger River District Hospital at Bellingen. Mayor – Cr Mark Troy, Deputy Mayor - Cr Kerry Child and General Manager Mike Colreavy will be meeting the Minister in Sydney on 24 February along with local Member of Parliament, Andrew Stoner. The Council has agreed to include Bellingen Hospital Action Group representative, Jaki Lockyer, in the delegation.

“We have concerns about the direction the hospital is heading and we asked Andrew Stoner to seek this meeting last December,” said Cr Troy. “Promises made to the community many months ago to reinstate the maternity services have not been kept, and it is now at a standstill. We also hold grave fears that there is an underlying agenda to cut other services including possibly discontinuing the 24 hour accident and emergency service and reducing the availability of acute beds. We will be telling the Minister that these service reductions are completely unacceptable to the Bellingen community. We want obstetric and maternity services re-instated and assurances that other services will be maintained.”

Members of the delegation also understand that some hospital functions could be better utilised, such as the operating theatre. “There is spare capacity with the operating theatre,” said Cr Troy.

Cr Troy also said that the Hospital needs more funding to maintain and replace infrastructure. “It is our understanding that the North Coast area receives substantially less than its equitable share under the funding formula that determines how much should be allocated to the Region,” said Cr Troy. “Consequently the infrastructure is being run down because the Area Health Service can’t afford to maintain it properly. This is a very unsatisfactory state of affairs.”

The February Council meeting will instead be held on Thursday 25 February.

Authorised by Mike Colreavy – General Manager File No.:

Date: 8/2/2010

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Mark Troy 6655 7315

ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO BE ADDRESSED TO THE GENERAL MANAGER, PO BOX 117, BELLINGEN NSW 2454, TELEPHONE (02) 66557300, FAX (02) 66552310

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