As part of its Youth Month initiatives, London- and Johannesburg-listed platinum mining company Lonmin convened a series of career guidance workshops for learners at schools in communities around the company’s mines and in labour-sending areas to showcase a career life “beyond mining”.

Lonmin hosted 120 Grade 9 learners, 15 from each of the eight high schools in the greater Lonmin community (a 50 km radius around the mines’ operations), as well as eight beneficiaries of the 1608 Trust at a two-day workshop held from June 27 to 28. “The community often sees mining as the only career opportunity and choice.

There is life, a greater world beyond mining,” says Lonmin stakeholder engagement and regulatory affairs executive VP Thandeka Ncube. She notes that, therefore, Lonmin aims to expose the youth to other career opportunities and provide them with the insights, tools, career information and guidance as they prepare for their final stretch of high school and start thinking about the world of employment or entrepreneurship.

The learners engaged with career counselling experts from top universities, professionals in the fields of mining, engineering, marketing and finance and successful entrepreneurs. The workshops also included life skills training on topics such as self-awareness, respect and decision-making skills, as well as individual and community capacity building, with a strong focus on behavioural change.

Lonmin staff shared real-world experience and insights on different careers, while tertiary institutions provided learners with advice on career days and bursary information. Further, finance and youth development institutions shared information on building budding businesses and the support they can provide.

Lonmin customers and suppliers also showcased their career options and products. Lonmin communications and branding group head Wendy Tlou explains that the programme was partly the outcome of interactions with young people in the surrounding communities in recent months, including during demonstrations outside Lonmin’s premises last month by youth seeking employment opportunities.

In May, protestors from the Bapo Ba Mogale community demanded 1 000 jobs for its members and 500 cadet positions for its unemployed youth. While job opportunities in platinum mining are limited because of the state of the platinum group metals market, Lonmin hopes this programme will benefit current and future jobseekers and budding entrepreneurs in terms of work opportunities and life skills outside mining, Ncube emphasises. Lonmin CEO Ben Magara adds that Lonmin is sensitive to the deprivation caused by unemployment in mining towns and the rural areas of South Africa.

“We hope that this programme, which is intended as a long-term initiative, will contribute to more people from these areas succeeding in improving their livelihoods,” he notes. While Lonmin continues its stakeholder engagement with the Bapo Ba Mogale community and other youth groupings, the company aims to follow a holistic approach to engage with the youth in terms of unemployment, Tlou adds.

Lonmin will also include programmes to cater for the different youth segments in the community as part of its social and labour plan in the Lonmin greater community. “Throughout the year, Lonmin will augment and enhance the existing programmes and build new programmes that have quarterly interventions targeting the youth.

However, we will be cognisant of the different youth segments’ needs, so that we don’t apply a ‘one-glove-fits-all’ approach,” Tlou says. 1608 Trust The 1608 Memorial Education Trust was founded by Lonmin and black economic-empowerment partner Shanduka Resources, following the violence of the Marikana protests and the death of Lonmin employees in August 2012, which resulted in several children losing the main breadwinners of their families.

The trust funds the education needs of the dependent children and has, to date, spent an estimated R8.9-million on the educational requirements of the beneficiaries – essentially tuition fees, boarding fees, transport, uniforms, textbooks and excursions.

The 1608 Trust currently has 141 beneficiaries of different ages, 14 of whom have to date proceeded to tertiary education, such as university, further education and training, as well as technical vocational and educational training. The trust continues to deliver positive results, having provided the funding and opportunity for two of its beneficiaries’ tertiary education for this year.

Lonmin has further committed to a yearly revenue of about R3.5-million to be in line with the fluctuation rates and day-to-day demands of the educational requirements of the beneficiaries.