Pharmacy Daily | First Nations workforce scholarship

A NEW joint student scholarship initiative was announced yesterday by Symbion and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, which aims to improve outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pharmacy students and strengthen the First Nations workforce through education and career support.

The initiative flows from the Guild's and Symbion's reconciliation efforts being implemented through their own respective "Reflect" Reconciliation Action Plans (RAPs), endorsed by Reconciliation Australia.

Under the initiative, four pharmacy student scholarship recipients of the program will receive an annual entitlement of $10,000 and be eligible for conference registration fees, travel, and accommodation to a pharmacy conference for one year.

The initiative also provides two pharmacy assistant scholarships of $5,000 annually and payment of conference registration fees, travel, and accommodation to the Pharmacy Assistant Conference for one year.

To help strengthen Symbion and TerryWhite Chemmart's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples workforce, Symbion will provide each program participant with:

Options and support for placement for each program participant during their degree/study;

Opportunities for placement during the pharmacy student's intern year (or similar) at a TerryWhite Chemmart pharmacy; and

Employment opportunities during holiday periods.

Each program participant will receive a mentor and that mentor will be paid $750 for each year of support by Symbion.

Guild President Trent Twomey said the initiative was a welcome move in strengthening the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pharmacy workforce through education and career support.

"This is a very important and significant collaboration between the Guild and Symbion, and one which will have far-reaching and lasting positive impacts," he said.

Chief Executive Officer of Symbion, Brett Barons, also confirmed that the initiative "will help to build a strengthened Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pharmacy workforce which will result in an increased provision of, and access to, improved culturally appropriate pharmacy services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients".