As mining progresses, health and safety training also has to evolve to remain relevant, says the University of the Witwatersrand’s Centre for Sustainability in Mining and Industry (CSMI).

CSMI stakeholder engagement programme manager Nancy Coulson states that the mining health and safety training requirement is twofold.

Requisite health and safety education includes training professionals, who are able to engage at the highest levels of company decision-making to ensure that zero harm is aligned with production planning, and workers, who contribute to their own health and safety, she explains.

Coulson emphasises that, although there has been significant local recognition of the importance of mine health and safety leadership, the training of safety professionals in South Africa does not adequately equip them with the range of skills necessary to interact effectively with business leadership. “We are not educating at a master’s level with regard to safety.”

She says new challenges in meeting zero-harm targets require senior health and safety professionals to work alongside business leadership and champion health and safety input during the mine life cycle, from mine design to operation and the gradual downsizing and closing of the mine.

The CSMI is focusing on programmes in other countries for safety science training at undergraduate and postgraduate level, and on possible opportunities for such training in South Africa.

Pointing out that courses worldwide are increasingly focusing on health and safety leadership, even integrating health and safety with MBA programmes, Coulson emphasises the impending changes for health and safety.

“Senior mine health and safety professionals recognise that training at the highest level for health and safety professionals is vital,” says Coulson.

Further, research under way at the CSMI is interrogating the fit between the role played by worker-elected health and safety representatives and the training provided for individuals selected for this role, she explains.

“Evidence from a study in New Zealand is that there is a typology of four roles that health and safety representatives play in the workplace,” says Coulson. The research suggests that health and safety representatives can play different roles and can be helpful in terms of problem solving and in applying technical expertise based on their skills and work experience, she adds.

However, locally, the training that health and safety representatives currently receive mostly deals with ensuring compliance with safety rules or monitoring the behaviours of other workers, which is considered the role of a ‘workshop inspector’ and is only one of the four typologies, Coulson states.

She notes that earlier research from the UK suggests, for example, that organised labour should be involved in the training of health and safety representatives to allow for independence when raising employer-related concerns.

“The CSMI is interested in strengthening the training levels in this discipline,” she concludes.