MEDIA RELEASE
Friday 20 May 2011
The National Employment
Services Association (NESA) has launched a national grant - the
first of its kind - that will enhance the knowledge of people who
work at the "coal face" of helping job seekers
find employment.
The NESA Employment Discovery
Grant will ensure Australian employment services professionals
remain at the absolute cutting edge of world practices, helping
them to deliver on the Gillard Government's budget focus of getting
more unemployed people off welfare and into jobs.
The Grant, which includes a
fully-sponsored international study tour, incorporates attendance
at the OECD Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED)
Programme's annual forum. The 2012 event will be held in
Europe early next year and will be attended by about 200 of the
world's employment and economic development experts. The recipient
of this inaugural grant will attend the OECD's invitation-only
forum as the special guest of the OECD LEED Executive and NESA CEO,
Sally Sinclair.
Ms Sinclair launched the grant at
NESA's Practitioners' Conference, which was held in Melbourne this
week and attended by Australian employment services
practitioners.
"This grant has been created to
support and encourage excellence in employment services practice,"
Ms Sinclair said.
"It will provide the recipient with
an exceptional opportunity to enhance their professional
development in the international context by participating in a
forum and study tour to meet with, and explore the strategies and
practices being undertaken by, our international
colleagues."
"Upon their return, the recipient
will share what they have learned with industry colleagues. In this
way, their knowledge will benefit the whole industry and, in turn,
assist employment services practitioners in effectively helping
disadvantaged Australians into employment," Ms Sinclair
said.
NESA is the peak body representing
organisations and individuals in the employment and related
services industry in Australia.
The Employment Discovery Grant has
been created by NESA and is supported by industry partner,
RecruitmentSuper.
Applications for the grant close on
Wednesday 13 July, with the recipient announced on Tuesday 9 August
at NESA's National Employment Awards for Excellence gala dinner in
Brisbane.
Go to www.nesa.com.au for more information on the NESA
Employment Discovery Grant.
...ends
Media Contacts:
Lauren Clark or Liz Rivers
Veronica McGowan
Awards
Absolute Communications
& Media Consultant
Grant
Convenors
National Employment Services Association (NESA)
T: 07 5446
4299
T: 03 9686 3500
E: nesa@awardsabsolute.com
E: veronicam@nesa.com.au