TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) and The Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR) on Monday recommended that Canada's exploration industry improve student field training programmes to improve geoscientist recruitment and retention.

In its study titled ‘Effects of field experience on recruitment and retention of geoscientists in mineral exploration’, the PDAC and MiHR identified four critical areas the industry should focus on to attract and retain geosciences graduates.

The objective of the research was to investigate the impacts of field experience on the flow, recruitment and retention of talent from education in geosciences to the mineral industry.

The study urged the Canadian mineral industry to prioritise the four critical areas, namely to improve current field training programmes; strengthen industry and education collaboration; address problematic fieldwork culture; as well as mid-career attrition to recruit geosciences graduates into the field.

"The Canadian mining industry will need to fill close to 140 000 mining-related jobs within the next decade. The skilled labour shortage we're facing as an industry is real. Recruiting and retaining geosciences graduates will play an important role in closing the skills gap in the sector," PDAC executive director Ross Gallinger said.

"In 2007, we saw a need to encourage more people into the geosciences to pursue a career in mineral exploration and improve the overall health of the industry by increasing interaction between students and industry professionals.

“Up until now our focus has been on attracting more students into the industry, but now our sector needs to look at expanding our educational initiatives to recruit and retain graduates to address the skills shortage,” Gallinger added.

One of the PDAC's skills shortage initiatives is the yearly Student-Industry Mineral Exploration Workshop, which is led by more than 60 volunteer industry experts in the exploration and mining sector.

The initiative exposes 26 post-secondary geosciences students to all aspects of the mineral exploration industry and gives them a practical and business perspective on mineral exploration that is not available inside the classroom.