The feast-or-famine extremes to which the mining industry is subject also plague mining schools. In 1982 for example, the Department of Mining Engineering at Queen’s University was polishing the skills and theoretical know-how of about 150 diamonds-in-the-rough. A deep recession derailed the hopes of this unlucky group of budding mining engineers. For several years afterward, employment prospects were sparse or non-existent. Prof Peter Calder, head of Queen’s mining school, can’t forget the debacle. He was responsible for recruiting some of the luckless. The situation is virtually the opposite today, largely because of the recession, which spread the perception that mining is as wildly fickle as it can be lucrative. The fact that it is seen as a low-tech calling does not help. So jobs go begging for lack of graduates.
Calder, however, has proposed what seem to us to be tenable remedies. At a recent branch meeting of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Calder challenged mining companies to commit not only to hiring undergrads, but to going beyond that and offering challenging work-terms through planned programs. He called for 5-year, renewable commitments from individual mining companies with a guarantee of permanent employment for each student worker on graduation. “We must find a way of ending the frustrating situation of a healthy industry unable to find enough engineering manpower to meet its present demands and ensure its future.” For Calder, merely placing a summer student is insufficient. Companies must engage the student’s intellect and attempt to spark a real and enduring interest in mining. Basic, on-the-job assignments are necessary, yet a meaningful work term requires “exposure to technical issues.”
While appreciating the practical difficulties of such a program, Calder offered this warning: “Without strong industrial support I believe the situation will worsen, and some university programs servicing the resource sector may become untenable.”
Mining companies should consider Calder’s proposal.
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