Upskilling youth benefits mines

Murray & Roberts Cementation Training Academy is partnering with a number of mines to train unemployed youth for prospective careers.

The company conducts training programs lasting two months to six months for young members of communities from within sending areas of various mining operations – in a bid to open the door for employment opportunities for trained cadets while also providing the skills required by the existing mines.

“These programmes, customised to our clients’ requirements, help to develop the local talent pool,” says Murray & Roberts Cementation education, training and development (ETD) executive Tony Pretorius. “We have the capacity and competencies to develop a pipeline of skills that feeds the human resources strategy of the client – so that they can potentially fill their vacancies with young people with the necessary requisite skill sets.”

The company currently has two cadet programmes underway for blue chip mining companies, and highlights its efforts to achieve a better gender balance in a traditionally male-dominated sector. The training provides entry level skills in fields ranging from health and safety to underground hard rock mining – depending on the operational environment of the mine.

“In a mechanised mining operation, for instance, there is a primary suite of skills related to drill rigs and bolters, and a secondary suite of loading, dumping and utility vehicles and the likes,” explains Pretorius. “Clients ask us to customise entry level training as building blocks for these roles.”

This approach is aimed at allowing new entrants to progress up the development pathway into more senior production positions, over time. Murray & Roberts Cementation Training Academy also provides a multi-layered selection of training interventions that supports this upward development.

“The importance of the cadet schemes is that they improve the cadet’s access to available employment, while also paving the way to grow within that career to supervisory and management levels,” he says. “The cadetship itself allows the learner to achieve a specific skills requirement which has been defined by the client.”

He notes that the skills imparted through the cadet programmes also have relevance in industries beyond mining. Aspects of health and safety qualifications are covered in the cadetships, which provides insight into generic safety programmes applicable in many sectors. Pretorius says cadets have in the past found opportunities in the construction, engineering and mining industries – and even some in agriculture.