Securing the Critical Capability

December 2007

Securing the Critical Capability

The mining industry is experiencing acute skills shortages due to the increasing demand for commodities, low national unemployment and an ageing workforce. It is already apparent that the availability of skills will be one of the major variables influencing the development and sustainability of this industry into the future. Mining industry workforce management has been characterised by rapid, scale up and scale down (the boom-bust approach). Improved use of technology, higher quality training, and accessible career paths are necessary to shift the paradigm from boom-bust to long
term sustainable workforce development for an industry in growth.

Over time, the mining industry has committed significant resources to establishing and maintaining training departments on sites, with many companies now extending this commitment to corporate positions. Now is the time to build upon the strengths within
the industry to create a workforce development and management environment enabling each employee to reach their potential and businesses to meet their goals.

Through the development of this report, contributors have been asked to describe the characteristics of an ideal training system. A summary of their responses is described in Figure Two (over the page). A holistic and integrated skills strategy is needed to address the skilling needs and concerns of industry during this time. The strategy is also required to move existing systems and processes closer to those of a more efficient, focused and ideal approach.

There are stakeholder groups engaged in initiatives which contribute to the development of a mining workforce however a holistic approach is needed to ensure that industry’s skilling concerns are addressed and that all critical skills sets are managed.