The debate about the best type of education for the mining industry has raged for years, with advocates of the tertiary system arguing the merits of university degrees, while their opponents carry the flag for on-the-job training over theory-based learning.
However, with the skills shortage hitting the mining industry, people are beginning to ask: “Can’t we all just work together?”
In the past, newcomers to the industry have been faced with three distinct choices – tertiary degrees; certificate courses at TAFE or other registered training organisations; or on-the-job training and apprenticeships.
Each option has benefits and pitfalls. Tertiary qualifications equip graduates with the theoretical knowledge necessary to take up high-skilled positions within the industry. However, they do not always involve enough industry experience. Certificate courses offer lower-level qualifications with varying degrees of industry involvement. On-the-job training is effective for learning a specific job but does not necessarily equip participants with the skills and knowledge needed to move up the ranks.
The mining industry is teaming up with the various training organisations to overcome these shortfalls, offering a range of options for industry entrants to get what they want, while giving the industry what it so desperately needs – a greater number of skilled workers, as soon as possible.
Mining and construction company Thiess has been one of the first to take the initiative to deal with the skills shortage. In Queensland the company is developing a range of programs aimed at extending employees’ on-the-job learning. One of these, the Plant Apprenticeship program, is now in its third year, combining paid work with industry training to improve the skill level of apprentices.
Thiess has teamed up with training organisation the Caterpillar Institute for the program, which is offered to plant apprentices. Technical training for the program is carried out by institute over three two-week blocks each year.
Participants in the Plant Apprenticeship program can attain a Certificate Three in the areas of Engineering – Mechanical Trade as a diesel fitter, Automotive Electrical Technology and Engineering – Fabrication Trade for boilermakers and welding.
In a similar initiative, Ausenco has partnered with Queensland University of Technology to offer graduate and post-graduate degrees that are tailored to its business operations and relevant to the industry as a whole.
Ausenco manager of organisational development Andrea Spain said the scheme was developed as an attraction and retention strategy, and a way to develop employees, creating a pathway to higher positions within the company.
“Initially it’s a post-graduate diploma or a graduate diploma in built environment and engineering, and secondly a masters of project management,” she said.
“We envisage in coming years that we will be able to deliver a masters of engineering management and a masters of business administration as well.”
Spain said the benefits of the program for participants were twofold. It offered employees formal qualifications at no cost to themselves, and provided them with on-the-job learning.
“While it’s a formal qualification, a formal tertiary qualification, it’s being linked directly to their current work capabilities, so it will intensify the learning process because of their ability to directly apply it and bring those lessons learnt back to the business,” she said.
While mining companies are taking steps individually to increase the number of skilled participants in their workforces, tertiary institutions are also stepping up to help the industry. In 2006 the University of New South Wales, the University of Queensland and Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia joined together to form Mining Education Australia (MEA), a program focused on the final two years of undergraduate mining engineering programs.
In June this year MEA announced that the University of Adelaide would join its ranks. This gives the mining industry access to students from a state that has not had a mining engineering program for some time.
Units of study available through MEA focus on streams in mining engineering, including mine planning, mine ventilation, mine economics, rock breakage and the environmental and social aspects of mining.
MEA director of undergraduate studies Dr Paul Hagan said the MEA program offered mining engineering students access to a wider range of resources, including access to more academics with expertise in different areas.
“The MEA is an unincorporated joint venture between the three universities,” Hagan said.
“At MEA we have a common set of courses between the three institutions, so there’s commonality in courses. With that we are then able to gain benefits in terms of having a larger critical mass of academics providing support to the delivery of those courses to the students, whereas in the past each institution had to provide expertise in the various specialist areas.”
As well as including various tertiary institutions, MEA gets significant input and support from the industry. The program receives funding from Minerals Tertiary Education Council (MTEC), a body set up by the Minerals Council of Australia, while MEA’s executive level includes an equal number of senior representatives from the partner universities, and senior executives from the mining industry.
Hagan said that “the demand for mining graduates far exceeds the supply of mining graduates”, something he said MEA could help address.
“MEA, from the employer’s perspective or from the mining industry’s perspective, [aims] to improve the number of graduates who will be entering the industry,” he said.
Hagan said MEA’s objective is to improve the quality of teaching so that students are better prepared to understand the industry’s needs when they start working.
The MEA program includes requirements for students to undertake industrial training on location as well as going on field visits to minesites, to get a feel for the realities of the industry.
While MEA continues to grow within Australia, Hagan said there was also a chance for it to become an international organisation.
“The model we developed will allow other universities to be involved, as illustrated by the University of Adelaide recently joining us,” he said. “We’re also undertaking negotiations with overseas universities in North America and Africa and Europe to joining the MEA program.”
