Mining in focus
Artisan training
on the move
Artisan skills will play a key role in the development of the African continent.
The Artisan Training
Institute’s new modular
training solution aims to
bridge the challenges
that mining companies
face in finding and
growing locally sourced
skills, writes Nicola
Theunissen.
A
n imaginary exploration camp
in, let’s say, Liberia, has reached
a milestone: they’re moving into
production. The start-up-a-mine jitters
run high, but the team is confident in
the ore body. Long lead-time items have
been secured, contracts have been signed,
and as far as the Liberian government
goes, it’s (more or less) all systems go.
But a critical question keeps the project
manager awake at night: Where do we
find the skills to run this mine?
It’s not an uncommon problem. At this
year’s Mining Indaba, the mining sector
will again be putting heads together on
what they call the ‘soft’ issues of mining.
Skills development is one of them.
Policies pushing for local
strategies
In April 2018, the United Nations hosted
its 8th Global Commodities Forum in
Geneva, Switzerland. A topic that has
been discussed at length at the forum
is captured in the acronym, LCP. If the
phrase sounds unfamiliar, add it to the
policy reading list.
www.miningmirror.co.za
LCP stands for Local Content Policy,
and the Department of Trade and
Industry (dti) considers it a strategy
that has wide-fold economic benefits.
As a policy instrument, LCPs can be
used to leverage public procurement,
reduce trade deficits, and foster
infant industries, while increasing the
governments tax base.
In a presentation at the Global
Commodities Forum, an economist
defined LCPs as a set of instruments
requiring companies to use domestic
inputs, be it labour, capital, local goods
and services, ownership, or technology,
as a condition to operate in an economy.
(Note: condition, not nice-to-have).
While some LCPs focus mainly on
jobs, skills development is an important
enabler to equip labour with the right
competencies that industries require.
The Artisan Training Institute
(ATI), based in South Africa, has
been considering, for some time now,
innovative ways to meet the massive
demand to upskill Africa’s youth,
bearing in mind the mounting pressure
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