Education and training are integral to South Africa’s mining sector and contribute to the industry’s objective to be safer and more profitable, which is why mining majors continue to invest millions of rands in education and skills training. However, the investment does not always yield the expected positive results.

Despite mining majors such as Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) implementing several multimillion-rand education investment programmes in the platinum belt, the results of a 2013 research study released in May have revealed that there is a strong negative correlation between the proximity of a school to a mine and maths and science pass rates.

The study, ‘Platinum and Passes: The Impact of Mining Investments on Education Outcomes in South Africa’, which was conducted by a research team comprising experts from the South African Institute of International Affairs and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) School of Governance, further revealed that a R100-million education programme, implemented by Amplats from 2009 to 2012 as part of its community social investment, yielded almost no positive results.

Mining Weekly reported in May that the study found that the “small” positive effects of Amplats’ interventions were outweighed by the significant, unintended negative effects that the mere presence of its mines had on learning outcomes in schools surrounding the company’s platinum operations.

“We found that the further away the school is situated from the mine, the better the pass rates are, while the closer it is to the mine, the worse the pass rates are. It is exactly the opposite of what we were hoping for,” lead researcher Neissan Besharati noted at the launch of the study.

This outcome was not only linked to the well-intended educational interventions of the company, but was also rooted in the larger socioeconomic challenges that communities living in and around the mining areas had to face, he added.

“There is [also] an overemphasis in these communities on the need to study maths and science at school, which leads to more learners taking these subjects and over- crowding in schools that are already under- resourced. It is a phenomenon that cannot be changed by Amplats or anyone else.”

Besharati noted that there were some design problems and implementation challenges in Amplats’ programme, causing concern among various education stakeholders.

The research programme, which studied the delivery, efficacy and impact of Amplats’ educational programmes on local mining communities, found that it benefited only a few select beneficiaries, as the implemented interventions were “too small” to translate into significant gains for the general schooling systems of the platinum-rich Limpopo and North West provinces.

Interventions implemented by Amplats to increase pass rates, particularly in maths and science, comprised learner enrichment programmes, educator training and school infrastructure upgrades.

According to the report, an impact assessment of Amplats’ investment programme indicated no statistically significant effect on the maths and science pass rates of the beneficiary schools.

Besharati notes that the company attempted to do too many things in too small doses, reducing its chances of making a deep and lasting impact.

“The most promising initiative was probably the educator training, but this was also done with too small a group and too little time was allowed for a visible effect,” he noted.

Higher Learning

Wits School of Mining Engineering head Professor Fred Cawood says that South Africa, as a developing country with a mature mining industry, needs a more integrated education system to supply a constant stream of relevant skills, professionals, specialists and researchers to sustain the country’s mining industry.

Through various sponsorships, the school has been supplying the industry with a constant stream of mining engineering graduates for more than 100 years.

“The school is recognised as one of the world’s top mining engineering schools, with one of the most expansive programmes,” he says, adding that it also has one of the highest growth rates of the engineering schools in the country, as student numbers for the school’s courses have been consistently increasing.

Cawood states that the school’s undergraduate programme is designed to provide graduates with the engineering expertise they require as mining engineers.

The school has, in conjunction with the South African mining industry, also developed a postgraduate programme with a range of mostly technical subjects required for specialists in new mining fields like mechanised mining systems, mine planning, sustainable development of minerals and resource management, in addition to established fields like mineral economics.

“Wits mining graduates are up to any new challenges in the sector” Cawood says, noting that the school is respected internationally for the quality of its programmes and graduates.”

Challenges and Benefits

Cawood comments that a major challenge regarding education in the industry is to define a proper skills set and to redesign the mining education system so that it supplies the right quantity and quality of skilled workers at all levels, with minimum leaking of talent.

“We need to find a way to integrate industry initiatives, qualifications and institutions so that we can significantly reduce the number of dropouts from the system through effective mentoring and guidance of talent so that we can match ability with qualification; we must also sort out the socioeconomic problems of students so that they are better supported and can focus on their studies” he says.

Gold miner Sibanye Gold senior VP for investor relations and communications James Wellsted states that supplying the industry with qualified skills remains a key challenge, adding that Sibanye has extensive in-house training programmes to upskill its employees and has a history of supporting academic and training institutions in South Africa.

The company donated R25-million last month to the University of Johannesburg and Wits towards mining and engineering education to create a sustainable pipeline of skilled employees who will be enabled to further unlock the mineral wealth of South Africa.

The universities will share the donation equally, which will be used for capacity building, facility upgrades and student support in the mining and engineering faculties.

Since 2010, 164 students have directly benefited from this partnership between Sibanye Gold and the academic institutions and 134 are currently permanent employees of the miner.

Sibanye has also invested R14-million to support students (during 2014) who are studying in disciplines that are core to the mining industry.

In addition, the company has committed to providing vacation work to enable students from both universities to gain practical experience in their fields of study.

Sibanye has also contributed significantly towards infrastructure development, student support in maths and science, portable skills, bursaries and learnerships.

“Last year, 1 220 employees and 593 community members participated in an adult basic education and training programme. In addition, 1 354 community members have been trained in portable skills, such as carpentry, welding and cutting, basic computer skills, plumbing and [other] relevant skills which will enable them to earn a decent living,” says Wellsted.

He states that the company wants to facilitate the emergence of engineers from communities around its mines, including Bekkersdal, Khutsong and Matjhabeng, as investing in education will not only provide future employees but also help to break the cycle of poverty.

“We are committed to developing the skills of our people and the industry, and we will continue to support collaborative programmes that are geared towards education, as we believe it will enable us to meaningfully deal with the socioeconomic challenges facing our country,” Wellsted says.