The Pharmacy Guild of Australia has partnered with healthcare company Symbion to announce a new student scholarship initiative for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pharmacy students.
The scholarship’s aim is to strengthen the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce through education and career support.
The initiative flows from the Guild’s and Symbion’s reconciliation initiatives 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;
- Employment opportunities during holiday periods.
Each program participant will receive a mentor and that mentor will be paid by Symbion $750 for each year of support.
President of the Pharmacy Guild, 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,” Professor Twomey said.
Chief Executive Officer of Symbion, Brett Barons, said: “It 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.”
