Mining engineering graduates struggling to find jobs
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – After decades of undersupply, mining engineering graduates are now struggling to find employment.
Even more surprising, writes Professor Emeritus Huw Phillips in the latest edition of the Journal of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM), is that some of the best graduates are being cut loose on graduation, despite having received mining industry bursaries throughout their undergraduate studies.
“It’s all too easy to regard young graduates, at the start of their working lives, as a cost rather than an asset,” chides Phillips, who was honoured with professor emeritus status last year after serving 27 years as a full professor at the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Mining Engineering.
He reveals that graduates are having to resort to finding jobs anywhere they can and warns that they are unlikely to return.
While conceding that many of the graduates may at this stage be unsuitable for a career within the narrow confines of 'production', he pleads the case for them to be considered for employment in the increasingly important 'service departments' of minerals industry companies, where technical skills are in short supply.
“We all know that mining is a cyclic business and also that 'the darkest hour is just before dawn'.
“The industry must now have the foresight to develop this raw talent to ensure we’re well positioned to take advantage of the next upturn,” Phillips urges, outlining that the broadness of the education and the skills that the graduates have received equip them for a place in the general workforce, far from the mining industry itself.
“This once great industry is at a low ebb as it struggles to come to terms with the forces imposed on it by the past decade,” he adds, pointing out that particularly the gold sector has relied on brawn with physical effort delivering the product.
However, to remain competitive in the twenty-first century it will be brains rather than brawn that will make the difference.
Phillips describes the ten papers published as part of this year’s SAIMM student colloquium as being “high” in quality, with two of four on mineral processing dealing with the important issue of finding uses for South Africa’s growing mountain of discard coal.
Comments
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation