Wanted: young, skilled mining employees to help grow sector
• The commodities market is no walk in the park — and companies need to think creatively about how to attract a new generation to the industry
What skills are required by the mining sector? Is the sector aspirational for young leaders and how can it create value?
There is a gap between the skills required and the attitude and orientation of targeted skill sets among students.
The mining sector is not an easy one in which to work. The commodities market is profoundly depressed and mining is beset by political, regulatory, social, cultural and environmental pressures.
Mining is a capital-intensive industry and a major employer that is expected to deliver value broadly and responsibly. It is informed by past practices and future innovations.
It is an extractive industry accompanied by pioneering environmental research and practices. It is also scientific and hard-headed and is not possible without a core focus on human relationships.
It is these paradoxes that make the work challenging and stimulating. To be a miner is to work at the convergence of politics, science and sociology. To an extent, the history of SA is a history of this convergence.
Consider this dilemma: by some measures South African mining should be moving towards a more innovative, automated, less labour-intensive approach to remain competitive with the rest of the world. But as a developing economy, the expectation from the government and local communities is that mining companies should create employment to the greatest extent possible. How do we balance that?
Mining companies are under great pressure to be good businesses — responsible, compassionate and fair, as well as efficient, effective and successful. With low commodity prices and volumes, companies need to leverage the value of innovation and at the same time follow core business principles to maintain low costs.
The South African mining industry continues to be a major source of employment at a time when at least 25% of the working-age population is unemployed. Yet the industry faces a skills shortage in many of the disciplines necessary for its future health.
There are many consequences that arise from this lack of skills. Perhaps most important, safety can be compromised and productivity and profitability suffers. There is an increased strain on existing workers, innovation slows and projects are completed over budget and behind schedule.
Maths, science and engineering are the skills that drive the enterprise, but equally vital are management and financial skills. Some of the technical skills required by the industry include geology, mining engineering, metallurgical engineering, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, analytical chemistry, mine surveying and design and manufacturing.
Professionals are also employed in supporting functions such as accounting, financial management, human resources and corporate services. Mining firms need good communicators, development professionals and information technology professionals.
Huge opportunities exist for young people who make use of available bursaries or training in scarce skills.
Even under the current circumstances, there is a need for skilled graduates — and this need is going to become critical.
Research conducted five years ago showed that 40% of the resource extraction industry’s workforce was more than 50 years old.
As skilled workers retire, it is the responsibility of mining companies to see that skills are retained through skills-transfer and mentorship programmes. We must ensure a sufficient pipeline of graduates, as well as robust and attractive career development paths.
The onus is on mining companies to create the pipelines for scarce skills and to take responsibility for crafting the workforce they desire. This requires forward planning, imagination and determination.
Public-private partnerships, and especially partnerships between companies and educational institutions, are vital to achieving this.
Our Bambisanani programme, for example, aims to address SA’s skills shortage through professional intervention at school level, working with schools, educators, the government and principals to support particularly maths and science learning.
The emphasis on a holistic approach to pupil and teacher support is the only viable model for educational initiatives.
The mining industry is well supported by SA’s universities. But while enrolment figures in departments crucial to the industry have increased, they have, in some instances, struggled to attain a proportional increase in pass rates.
A similar focus on holistic support might ameliorate this situation. Attention must be paid to students’ living conditions, access to textbooks and other materials, mentorship and tutorial programmes. These are crucial to academic success.
Mines are typically in remote places and, as a result, attracting and retaining young talent from elsewhere is a challenge most mining companies face.
They need to think creatively about what they offer potential employees (workplace and social propositions), especially if the shift is from an older workforce to a younger one.
Mines are also expected to empower the inhabitants of the region in which they operate. Entering into partnerships with local communities grounds mining in a sense of place. The complex network of relationships built up means you can’t fool yourself into thinking mining is impersonal, or that mines have nothing to do with the places in which they dig.
This means skills development initiatives need to take place in this context.
Workforces need skill sets that hold value and they must reflect societal demographics. SA has worked hard at improving legislation and increasing the number of women working in the mining industry.
While the intake of women has been higher than the percentage targeted by the Department of Mineral Resources, women still make up only 11% of the operational mining workforce.
Mining takes place in areas with long-held cultures celebrating masculinity. As such, the sector is forced to confront the realities of our society.
The challenges women face in mining are not as simple as being unable to compete physically on the same level as some of the men. Subtle and blatant discrimination is still a factor in the industry.
It is not enough to say: employ more women. There needs to be a support network in place — proper mentorship of young women by women who have advanced in their mining careers, and career and development guidance.
People must feel empowered and have their achievements recognised at work or they will leave to seek opportunities elsewhere. Great successes can be achieved by challenging the stereotype that mining is men’s work. It is up to mining companies to change the way mining is seen by changing the way mining is practised.
We need to change perceptions of the industry when those don’t reflect reality.
For example, mining companies are continuously investing in new technologies – in terms of safety, energy, production and environmental management – but we are not doing enough to share these amazing stories so the young people we are trying to reach know that the industry is exciting and innovative.
We have to make sure mining is seen as the modern, responsible industry it has worked hard to become.
Ensuring the mining industry has sufficient numbers of suitably skilled employees in the future requires a long pipeline and there is a potential for leaks at many stages along its length.
If we are to grow our future employees from high-school age or younger, we have to offer the support they need in the present and show them we have their futures at heart.
Otherwise it is too easy for them to be lost through competitive poaching by other industries or countries, or through them exiting the system due to an inability to overcome obstacles we can — and should — remove.
OPPORTUNITIES EXIST FOR YOUNG PEOPLE WHO MAKE USE OF AVAILABLE BURSARIES OR TRAINING IN SCARCE SKILLS