With the rise of mining in Africa comes a greater need for certain skills that are scarce on the continent. The current skills gap in the mining sector is not restricted to Africa; it’s a problem globally. This was found by the Chamber of Mines in Zambia in 2020, which released a report on the problem.
According to the report, the mining industry ‘has become the victim of its own success.’ The report states that its ‘exponential growth’ over the last two decades has ‘drained the talent pool’. In other words, the growth of talent cannot keep up with the rate of expansion in the mining sector.
Along with this fast growth, there are various other reasons for the worldwide shortage of talent in mining.
For one, an enormous portion of workers in the sector is reaching retirement age – nearly half, in fact. This is further draining the global talent pool. Mining companies are left scrambling to find replacements, of which there are not enough.
Secondly, mining is no longer a popular career option. This is because workers face a certain amount of hardships. These include long work days, harsh working conditions, and having to move to remote locations.
And thirdly, the last 20 years have seen an upsurge in global mineral production due to increasing demand. This has just about exhausted the industry talent pool.
The situation in Africa
Countries in Africa with an abundance of minerals are struggling with a shortage of mining talent. Angola, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Ghana are a few. This skills gap is linked to insufficient teaching and learning facilities (due to a lack of funding) and mediocre governance. In some countries, like Ghana, inadequate training programmes are to blame.
There is room to improve these circumstances, however. Countries can widen their mining talent pool by building dedicated training institutions. Private sector companies can aid in this by providing funding and expertise so that training curricula meet industry skills requirements. A collaboration between private businesses and educative institutions could be the answer to closing Africa’s mining skills gap.
I would like to think that this is absurd. I have met a lot of students overseas who were there to study. Most of them were specializing in mining-related degree under the auspices of their respective governments. African problem is that these governments spend lots of monies sending students for training overseas BUT upon their return there is no placement for them to apply those skills and at the same time learn from the current experienced force in the mining sector. They come back to nothing and most of them prefer to find means of remaining in the countries where they studied because they now that going back is not really rosey as it should be.
The article also raised this point “enormous portion of workers in the sector are reaching retirement age – nearly half, in fact”. Why aren’t they absorbing young stars to harness the experience from these guys before their retirement age comes. The issue of experience in advertising mine-related jobs is the cause of all of this. No one is born with 5-year experience in the mining sector. We all aught to begin somewhere and that somewhere opportunity is not available to many esp, in AFRICA.
Of course we should also try to reach a point where universities begin to train competent engineers who will be able to fit in the working force right from their graduation. How can we reach that? How can universities reach that? There is huge role to be played both by university and mining companies! If mining companies would come to a deal with higher learning institutions to let engineering students conduct real research projects in their lease areas we could get somewhere! This ofcourse, needs a dialogue between two partners, to set rules, regulations and contract of agreement.
I am looking for job position oporater
Good day,
My name is William Fredericks seeking for employment in the Human Resources Development discipline. Highly experienced in Operator Training on Opencast Mines on Trackless Mobile Equipment. B-Tech in Human Resources Development. Vienna Test System (VTS), Career paths, Skills Development, Simulator training, Dragline operator training for novices, Dragline digging techniques and sequencing, operator tips and techniques, reducing cycle times; bucket filling, 45° digging angle; digging, dig-to-dump; dumping; dump-to-dig. Assesments, Licensing, Refresher training.
Founder and owner of an Accredited Training Company; compeled to close it because of the pandemic.
Il me semble que cette idéologie est d’une grande importance pour le développement mental quand on est entrains d’apprendre un métier qui cadre avec un environnement minier.
Sans oublier que d’autre pays non listé doivent se rallier pour accroître les différentes compétences.
good morning sir, I want to write this application but I don’t know the process.