The Industrial Affairs Committee is NAPSA's link between students and the pharmacy industry and represents students’ rights with relevant organisations. The dynamic nature of the pharmacy industry means it is vital to regularly update students on changes that may affect them, either now or in their future careers. The IA Committee endeavours to accurately represent student needs to discover the wants and needs of students, to implement change where necessary and advocate student rights.
Each year the IA Committee updates and publishes the Industrial Affairs Student Booklet, “Student Pharmacist in the Workplace, My Rights, My Responsibilities”, and makes it available in hard copy to all second year members, as well as electronically on the NAPSA website. This booklet contains information on job seeking (including finding a job, writing a resumé and preparing for an interview), job expectations (common duties of pharmacy assistants, pre-registrants and registered pharmacists) and workplace agreements (what are they and how to negotiate one). It is developed in collaboration with the Pharmacy Guild of Australia as well as other industry leaders and is invaluable to all students embarking on a pharmacy career.
The online National Pharmacy Students' Survey (NPSS) is another initiative of the IA Committee, designed to identify issues relevant to today's pharmacy student. Each year students are invited to give their views on current topics that affect students and the industry as a whole. It is very important for students to respond to the National Survey, to ensure a broad and comprehensive representation of students' views.
The NPSS information is then used by the IA Committee to implement change to benefit students, for example developing policies and position statements (IA Documents) that reflect the needs of NAPSA members. These documents aim to protect the rights of pharmacy students and are reviewed annually to ensure they remain relevant to current NAPSA members.
The IA Committee also encourages members to contact the committee at any time to suggest improvements to the IA booklet or survey, as well as to voice any thoughts or concerns on current issues or the pharmacy industry as a whole.
