RUSTENBURG (miningweekly.com) – A business case for Phase 2 of the Lonmin Artisan College, which would see the introduction of instrumentation training at the facility at a cost of just over R8-million, has been drafted and submitted less than a year after the establishment of the training facility.

Lonmin Academy senior manager for talent and leadership Ashley Walbrugh filed the business case at the end of February, asking for capital from shareholders to introduce the training modules for instrumentation, which would allow the college to offer this training in-house.

He told Mining Weekly Online that the college had already started implementing some of the in-house instrumentation training and that, as a result, the company had saved R1.5-million owing to the reduced cost of sending labour to external service providers.

This was despite significant disruptions in the college’s first year of development, owing to a prolonged wildcat strike and the tragic events of August 16 in the college’s immediate surroundings in the vicinity of the Marikana mine.

Walbrugh said on Monday that the college, together with the Mining Qualifications Authority (MQA), took the decision to extend the length of the training programme for those learners who faced disruptions owing to the labour unrest.

“We wanted to award them a fair opportunity to finish the programme without interruptions. They were, therefore, given special provision to extend their learnership, as a result of the circumstances,” he said.

The college, situated in Marikana in the North West, was launched in April 2012 to tackle the shortage of technical skills in South Africa and to ensure the sustainability of Lonmin’s pool of employable tradespeople.

The Lonmin Artisan College currently catered for three different fields of learnerships – the engineering learnership programme, which had 73 learners; the mining learnership programme, which had 46 learners; and the processing division, which had 32 learners.

Lonmin explained at a media briefing that training numbers were based on the company’s requirements, adding, however, that the company had committed to developing an external number of jobs to also enhance the country’s skills base.

As a result, the primary intake of trainees comprised 50% community members and 50% Lonmin employees.

The college currently offered qualifications in the electrical trade – an accreditation that was formalised as part of Phase 1 – and provided in-house training in other fields, including drilling, blasting, rigging, operational training and, after this year, instrumentation in the processing division.

Walbrugh said it took 26 months to complete an MQA-accredited learnership, with the exception of a millwright accreditation, which could take up to four years.

Learners received on-the-job training, which comprised four-month-long practicals at a time, and were provided with theoretical training through qualified education, training and development practitioners.