While the recent growth in SA’s mining activity points to a recovery for the sector, the country must address its mining skills shortages to sustain its growth and competitiveness, says IDEA CEO Corrin Varady.
Founded by Varady in 2014, IDEA is a digital education platform which partners with the national department of basic education and the Western Cape government to provide low-cost, curriculum-aligned content for public school students and teachers.
Varady told Business Day that critical skills shortages in SA’s mining sector could threaten its sustainability and global competitiveness, particularly as the country struggles to attract investment.
“The country is losing valuable mining investments to more technologically advanced nations,” he said, with SA ranking 62 out of 86 jurisdictions in investment attractiveness in a 2023 report by the Fraser Institute.
The key challenge is a shortage of skills necessary for implementing emerging technologies and supporting the local industry’s digital transformation, which limits the sector’s ability to achieve greater productivity while worsening challenges around safety, costs and sustainability.
Digital transformation in the mining industry is also critical to create jobs for individuals with digital as well as science, technology engineering and mathematics skills — “yet there is a notable gap between the demand for these skills and the current supply,” he said.
This is largely thanks to insufficient technical foundations at basic and higher education levels, said Varady, adding that “if these foundational knowledge gaps are not addressed, SA’s mining industry will continue to face a shortage of skilled professionals, further compounded by the emigration of talent.”
As SA mining companies bring in foreign workers to fill the gap, there is a critical opportunity around knowledge transfer and skills development from the international community towards SA.
However, Varady said, “that gap will fail if we do not prepare students in SA to be able to take on those foundational skills that are coming towards us.”
Another ongoing concern is the lack of interest in mining from young people around the world, with 70% of people between ages 15 and 30 reporting that they would “probably or definitely not consider” working in mining, in a 2020 report by Canada’s Mining Industry Human Resources Council.
“If we don’t think about how to build those foundational scientific, engineering and technical skills required for South Africans to engage with mining, we fail to give our young people the hope that they can work in their communities,” said Varady.
“Therefore, we start to see an even greater emergence of economic migration out of mining towns towards urban hubs, where unemployment is rife,” he said.
A PwC report last year found that a severe shortage of tech skills could be an existential threat to the global mining sector. According to the 2023 report, up to two thirds of mining CEOs believed skills shortages would have either a large or a very large impact on their profitability in the next 10 years.
“Advanced AI skills in mining are being worked on in many countries, and we must make sure we are preparing students in SA to be able to embrace a digital economy in the mining sector,” he said.
To bridge the digital skills gap, Kerry Marques, GM of the engineering institute of technology (EIT) urged mining companies to develop customised training programmes in collaboration with educational institutions.
These should focus on key areas such as data analytics, automation and sensor technology, while addressing environmental sustainability, project management and soft skills to equip workers for the industry’s evolving demands.
“Focused training initiatives can close specific skill gaps in as little as six to 12 months, while a culture of ongoing learning can mitigate skills shortages over one to three years,” she said.
“Long term, consistent training can build a digitally mature workforce and reduce the frequency of skill shortages — creating a sustainable pipeline of talent for the future.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.