In the wake of her participation in the HRMINING 2012 seminar, Evelyn Matthei stressed that the mining industry requires intense and well-planned instruction as the industry defines what skill sets its workers need.
Facing human capital shortages in mining the Minister of Labour, Evelyn Matthei, stressed that the main task for all of those involved in the sector is to align the formal educational system with the needs of the mining industry.
This was the main point addressed by the minister on the last day of the 2nd International Seminar on Human Capital Management in Mining- HRMINING 2012. The conference took place over three days with the goal of creating a space to discuss and analyse the topic.
Matthei stated, “we need to supply the mining industry with a rigorous and well-planned educational system as the industry is who is defining the skills its workers need.” She also explained that nowadays in Chile there are many technical colleges, institutes, and universities that have curriculums that do not correspond to the needs of the productive sector.
In this regard, Minister Matthei highlighted that the Mining Council’s project called “Mining Skills Council” plays a significant supporting role as it seeks to alleviate labour gaps in the sector by focusing on the training of new workers.
The scope of the Skills Council which among other aspects, seeks to standardise specific skill sets and project future labour needs. The results of the study will later be communicated to educational institutions.
The minister also praised the contributions of the Hrmining seminar and stated “instances such as these are fundamental for the world to understand the major role human capital plays in the production and competitively of a company.” She also added that the seminar served as an excellent space to get to know and begin to understand the best practices and experiences in other countries in order to begin to adapt them to our reality.
The second version of HRMINING, in which over 250 people were in attendance, was organised by Gecamin and the Centre for Innovation in Human Capital at the Fundación Chile, and presided over by Alex Jaques, Vice-President of Human Resources at BHP Billiton Base Metals, Chile.
The event also included a keynote speech by the Executive President of the Mining Council, Joaquín Villarino, whose talk was entitled “Human Capital Challenges in the Chilean Mining Industry.” The seminar´s technical programme was made up of more than 40 presentations by authors from 7 countries.
