Chartered Secretaries Australia (CSA) announced on Thursday the winners of its inaugural public sector scholarship valued at $12,325.

The peak professional body developed the national scholarship award to recognise the growing importance of governance and risk management practice within the public sector. The scholarship incorporated the Graduate Diploma of Applied Corporate Governance.

CSA chief executive Tim Sheehy said he was delighted to announce the inaugural scholarship winners.

“Our scholarship winners were chosen from a number of entries received from applicants working in public sector agencies and departments across Australia,” he said in a statement.

“They were judged to have the best grasp of the importance of good governance and risk management practices in the sector, from their submitted essay and reasoned case for being awarded with the Scholarship.”

Mr Sheehy said CSA was impressed with the number of “outstanding applications” from across the country and from a diverse range of departments and agencies.

The scholarship award was determined by written submissions from applications, assessed by a select panel of industry experts. 

It included fees for all required subjects; attendance at CSA professional development activities (to the value of $1000) for 12 months following course completion; and a CSA Affiliate program subscription for one year following the award of the scholarship.

“As leaders in governance, we see the public sector scholarship as an integral part of our ongoing strategy to provide tailored education, training and professional development to those with governance and risk management responsibilities in the public sector,” MR Sheehy said.

“As we are offering two scholarships per state per year, we look forward to opening the invitation for entries for Semester 2, 2011 very soon.”                                              

Scholarship recipients

ACT: Andrea Cullen, Secretary, ACT Legislative Assembly, Standing Committee on Public Accounts
NSW: William Hawkins, Manager, CWA, NSW Department of Environment & Climate Change
NT: Belinda Townsend, Director, Governance, NT Dept of Lands & Planning
QLD: Suzanne Ford, Audit Implementation Manager, QLD Ambulance Service
SA: Reanna Worrell, Policy & Research Officer, Revenue SA
VIC: Trish Burrows, Governance, Regional Rail Link Authority
WA: Rebecca Poole, Asst. Director, Access & Resolution, Office of the WA Ombudsman