Funding available for GIS skills training

If you are an Australian SME in the spatial information business, you may be eligible for up subsidies of up to 75% of the costs of staff training.

The Spatial Information Business Association (SIBA) is coordinating submissions to the National Workforce Development Fund (NWDF). Though primarily aimed at SIBA member organisations, this opportunity is open to non-members as well.

There is a very short deadline though - firms need to register their interest by Monday 13 February 2012!

The details are set out in an email (below) from SIBA board member George Havakis.

Good luck!

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Dear members,

My name is George Havakis and I am a member of the National Board but also the Chair of SIBA Victoria.

You may be aware of recent activities where SIBA has been in joint bids for various funding opportunities from the Federal Govt. (DEEWR). The two that you may be aware of are

1.       the Qld project for up skilling of survey and geospatial technicians and

2.       the E-Learning project to develop course content to be delivered through flexible learning.

Both of these projects are gearing up for commencement. As a result of this success SIBA is now in a position to SUBMIT further applications under the National Workforce Development Fund (NWDF) and requests Registrations of Interest from member companies and their associates. (please do not hesitate to forward this email to other parties you feel may be interested).

In summary

1.       SIBA is calling for registrations of interest.

a.       We do not need large numbers we can work with a small number of companies

b.      This can be as few as 10

2.       Registrations to be submitted by midday Monday 13 February

a.       Complete the form, scan and send to george@gissa.com.au

3.       SIBA will make submissions on behalf of its members to minimize the costs associated with the submission and leverage from its experience with other successful bids

4.       At this point no funds are provided by the NWDF therefore costs will be apportioned to members registering an interest

5.       Costs for the submission to be paid by each member in the order of $500 + gst

6.       Priority to member companies – costs for non member companies will be in the order of $1500 + gst

The document NWDF SIBA ROI.pdf is a summary of what is proposed . As our lead time for the submission/s is short please read the attached documents (application form, and NWDF overview) and respond at your earliest opportunity.

We are excited about the opportunities that are arising for SIBA members and we are hopeful of taking advantage of these where we can.

Kind regards

George