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LIFE ALTERING MECHANISED MINING TRAINING PROGRAMME FOR UNEMPLOYED YOUTH

contribution towards the training academy budget and encouraged the team to take note of how much of a difference the MQA makes in the South African mining and minerals sector training space. The training programmes cover aspects of mining, engineering, and construction with specific elements such as pipes and ventilation; installation of support units; occupational health and safety; intermediate level rigging; and basic fire-fighting and working at heights. Their training focus is on various essential mining skills for the underground and hard rock environment. The learnership programme earns the trainees a Level 2 National Certificate in Health, Safety, and Environment for mining and minerals sector. The trainees selected represent a 60/40 gender split, with more females recruited to support the efforts of the sector to engage more women in mining. Mr Pretorius emphasised that the mining sector’s focus on ‘Zero Harm’ in the workplace also places particular demands on the training outcomes. “This means that a learner must be acutely aware of not only their expected tasks, but also the many dangers of the working environment,” he said. He also highlighted that none of their successful trainees have been involved in an accident or incident since the initial rollout of the training programme. This is a reflection of a value-adding aspect in these mechanised programmes. The MQA team was afforded an opportunity to tour and test the learning delivery areas of a uniquely designed training space, offering an integrated mechanised workplace mock-up training facility. Included in this training facility is the theoretical e-learning lecture classrooms and mechanised virtual workspace. The behaviour observed from both the facilitators and learners by the MQA team was that of absolute commitment and discipline. Breathtakingly clean, the training facility adhered to health and safety practices with no papers seen lying around; everyone was stationed where they were supposed to be, carrying out duties they were expected to perform. Most young unemployed learners who have undergone and completed Murray & Roberts Training Academy training programmes have had the enviable opportunity to be absorbed by the mining and minerals sector as full-time employees in most of its wide spread operations around the country. This can undoubtedly be attributed to the passion and commitment that is displayed by Mr Pretorius and his team in cultivating the much needed mechanised mining and minerals training programmes.

Mr Tony Pretorius, Murray & Roberts Training Academy ETD Executive, demonstrating to the MQA team, one of the many assimilated mechanised mining skills training areas.

Murray & Roberts took it upon themselves to be pioneers in providing innovative training opportunities to unemployed youth through mechanised training in the mining and minerals sector. The MQA Learning Programme Operations and Customer Service and Communication teams, led by the Learning Programmes Operations Manager, Mr Xolisa Njikelana, had the honour of being invited by Murray & Roberts Cementation Training Academy in Carletonville on 11 March 2021. The team had first-hand experience of the remarkable mechanised mining training facility and the training implemented by the company. On the day of the visit, a hearty and warm welcome was extended to the MQA team by Mr Tony Pretorius, the Murray & Roberts Training Academy Training and Development Executive, and his team. Through the MQA accredited and funded training programmes offered by Murray & Roberts Cementation Training Academy, many local and South African unemployed youth are afforded mining and minerals sector related training programmes which provide life altering prospects to enter the sector as skilled individuals. Mr Pretorius shared with the MQA team his indebtedness to the MQA’s thirty-five percent (35%)

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