INDABA PREVIEW

Australia assists African skills development

T

he speed of Africa's emer- gence as a global resources and energy leader has far exceed- ed the continent's ability to satisfy the demand for its minerals, oil

and gas.

Lacklustre infrastructure and mining policy are often pointed to as shortfalls of Africa's extrac- tives sector, but too often the foundation of the industry - the workforce - is overlooked in the conversation.

Fortunately for Africa, Australia is investing in the cogs that turn the continent's mining machine.

LNG hopeful Rubicon Re- sources Ltd recently announced its on-site skills training business, Futuro Skills, had partnered with Australian-based industry skills

Danika Bakalich

take the framework reins.

She was also confident it would be held to account by Australian explorers and miners operating in country.

"I think Australia's representa- tion in Mozambique is very strong and that momentum and sustaina- bility will be championed by those organisations," she said.

"There will be some continuity in that regard."

SkillsDMC is also halfway through a similar project in Zam- bia, in which it was engaged in March to build the capacity of Zambian Technical Education, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training Authority (TEVETA) to develop skills competency frame- works aligned to the specific op-

council SkillsDMC to design the implemen- tation of holistic workforce development pro- grammes in Mozambique.

Rubicon chief executive Richard Carcenac said the Futuro Skills and SkillsDMC part- nership would offer a "turnkey solution" to the "design and delivery of skills forecasting analysis, workforce plans and implementa- tion of strategies, mapping and design of a task-based matrix, verification of competency services, recruitment, medical screening of candidates, comprehensive vocational train- ing and labour hire".

Despite recently joining forces with Futuro

the Mozambican Government develop a bet-

ter understanding of industry and what it had to offer, particularly to the vocational educa- tion system.

She said it was critical Mozambique em- braced its changing economy and did every- thing in its power to seize the countless op- portunities afforded to it from the resources and energy sector.

"Activity is increasing exponentially and the operations are in regions where communities haven't experienced this rapid growth by any industry or sector," Bakalich said.

"It's not only about the technical skills, it's

erating requirements of the mining and civil infrastructure industries.

Bakalich said Zambia was hungry for eco- nomic growth and ready to extract full value from its resources sector, but the Govern- ment's relationship with industry was weak.

"The key challenges have been in under- standing the value of industry in this context, but more importantly how to communicate and how to identify what is needed to achieve the end game," she said.

"They are seeking to learn how we in Aus- tralia do things so they can apply it to their own markets, which is a terrific compliment

Skills, SkillsDMC has been hard at work in Mozambique since September last year, developing a skills competency framework through industry engagement and capacity building of the country's National Authority for Professional Education (ANEP) staff.

SkillsDMC deputy chief execu- tive Danika Bakalich told Paydirt

"

Skills policy harmonisation across Africa is the priority

and I certainly know that economic communities are focused on that.

to Australia. It's been a terrific ex- perience to understand some of the challenges faced in markets where that relationship is not as strong as it is here."

The resources boom clearly un- covered several deficits in Africa's mining workforce, but Bakalich said the continent, with the help of experienced mining nations, was

although the discovery of potentially world- class coal orebodies and natural gas reserves made Mozambique attractive to investors, the enabling environment for doing business re- mained challenging.

"At the moment the greatest need for skill- ing is work entry," Bakalich said.

"People who may have never had a job before, their language and literacy skills are quite low. The strongest educational and train- ing outcome of need is called work prepara- tion and foundational skills. It is simple things, like understanding what it means to work in a shift-based environment or operating within a management supervised environment. It's about setting expectations with that cohort."

Bakalich said SkillsDMC's work had helped

about the flow-on impacts of operations in re-

mote regions and any cross-industry skilling that might be sourced out of that. It's about leveraging the investments that operating companies are making in these regions and showing that the flow-on impacts are benefit- ing regional communities. I think that this is really about generational change in Mozam- bique."

SkillsDMC's involvement in the project con- cludes in March, but it was designed with a long-term objective to provide ANEP with the model, tools and skills to develop and main- tain skills standards for the mining and oil and gas sectors to support Mozambique's rapid economic development.

Bakalich said ANEP was almost ready to

now on a path of improvement.

"Skills policy harmonisation across Africa is the priority and I certainly know that economic communities are focused on that," Bakalich said.

"There are a lot of groups that are key to establishing skills frameworks and to allow and support the movement of workforces. Extractives is really the sector that defines how these multilateral relationships can take shape. The sector has a real influence over the politics and the community. It will be tre- mendous to see what comes out of this over the next five years."

- Rhys Dickinson

PAGE 84 DECEMBER 2015 - JANUARY 2016 AUSTRALIA'S PAYDIRT