NATA’S CONTRIBUTION There are many ways NATA contributes both directly and indirectly to Australian business and the community. For members, our work helps mitigate internal risk, increases community confidence in the products and services they offer and ultimately, facilitates trade.
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CONTRIBUTION TO INDUSTRY The Australian Government uses NATA accredited facilities wherever possible and encourages state and territory governments and other relevant organisations to do the same. This confidence highlights the value our services bring to industry and the community. Indeed, NATA is single minded in its approach to providing high quality, innovative and flexible accreditation and testing services for all its members. Creating this recognition and acknowledgment also gives our members’ businesses a competitive edge and their consumers the confidence to use their products and services. Our accreditation services cover an incredibly diverse range of industries including pathology, diagnostic imaging, environmental analysis, food, water, pharmaceuticals, concrete, asbestos, toxicology, electrical equipment, IT, biotechnology and many more. Our work within these varied industries provides a high level of security and safety for all Australians.
Annual Report 2020
CONTRIBUTION TO COMMUNITY Every day, Australians rely on testing, measurement, inspection and related activities. From food, electrical appliances and even toys for children, NATA accreditation provides the assurance these products and services can be used with confidence. As part of our mandate, we are always seeking to accredit more competent and suitable industry organisations. This growth of accredited organisations increases the products and services that can be confidently used in the community. CONTRIBUTION TO EDUCATION NATA has always placed a high value on education for its employees, volunteers, members and the public. Education ultimately benefits all stakeholders from members enhancing organisational productivity and competitiveness, to consumer certainty when purchasing products or using services. For the 2019-2020 year we are particularly proud to acknowledge that while COVID-19 had a significant impact on our training and education programs, we rapidly adapted to online training for our courses offered externally to our members and for our internal training purposes. Under challenging circumstances, our training has provided key education that will contribute to NATA’s ability to keep providing high quality technical knowledge and services to our members and ultimately the community.
YOUNG SCIENTIST OF THE YEAR AWARD A notable example of NATA’s contribution to education is our annual Young Scientist of the Year Award. Running since 2007, this initiative has provided awards and prizes to over 400 Australian primary school children across all states and school sectors. World Accreditation Day in 2020 highlighted the importance of food safety, so for this year the NATA challenge was: Why is food testing important and how does it protect the safety of Australians? We have received entries from schools nationally and anticipate over 200 projects to be submitted. NATA gives winning schools and students funds for investing in further educational resources. The competition is open to primary school students in three age groups: • 7 & 8 years • 9 & 10 years • 11 & 12 years. The key educational objectives of the competition are: • To promote to children the benefits and value of science • To encourage students to apply their creativity to scientific solutions • To demonstrate the importance of good presentation skills in science.
