Saskatchewan Mining Week
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This week is Mining Week in Saskatchewan.
To kick off the weeklong events that celebrate and promote the role mining plays in our province, Saskatchewan Mining Association (SMA) President Kelvin Dereski and Minister of Energy and Resources Bill Boyd were at Miller Comprehensive High School Monday to talk to students about the many career opportunities Saskatchewan's mining industry offers.
Mining week organizers chose a high school as the place to launch this year's events since the theme of Mining Week this year is ""Mining: Investing in Saskatchewan’s Growth." Mr. Dereski and Minister Boyd both emphasized that mining has a large part to play in Saskatchewan's future growth and the students of today are the key to ensuring the province's mining industry will continue to grow by providing the range of skilled labourers needed in the coming years.
To learn more about this need for skilled labourers and what the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science's role might be in meeting the future needs of the mining industry work force, please see the following article, first printed in the faculty's Synergy News Magazine, by Dr. Shahid Azam, a professor of Environmental Systems Engineering who has a keen interest in mining research and education.
Mining Industry – Challenges and Opportunities
The Canadian mining sector has a total workforce of 216,000 people, as reported by Statistics Canada Census 2006. However, there is an acute shortage of skilled professionals in the industry primarily due to an aging workforce. About 50% of the workers are above the age of 45 years and have to be replaced over the coming one to two decades.
Traditionally, low enrolments and the small number of available programs in Mining, Materials, Environmental, and Geological Engineering in Canadian universities contributed to labour scarcity. The educational attainment of the workforce breakdowns as follows: trades training (20%), college certificate (17%), university degree (11%), and university non-degree (3%). The last 14% (equaling 30,240 persons) have to be trained in our universities. In the Saskatchewan context, a total of 11,000 to 18,000 new skilled workers will be required to serve several mining operations in the province by 2017. According to a comprehensive forecasting study that was recently completed by the Mining Industry Human Resources (MIHR) Council, these workers include an estimated 350 to 575 engineers.
The Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science has been providing a sustained supply of engineers to the mining industry over the years. In particular, scores of our environmental systems engineering graduates are working in mining companies, consulting firms, and government agencies within the province and elsewhere in Canada. However, a more rigorous approach may be warranted to cater to this sector of our economy.
For example, the development of a mining sub-stream within the environmental program can be initiated and gradually transformed into an independent program over time. If this program takes care of the provincial requirements only, we will be teaching about 44 to 72 undergraduate students every year for the next eight years. If a joint program with the Department of Geology is initiated, it will produce the required number (500 to 830) of engineers and geoscientists over the coming eight years that equals 62 to 104 students annually in our classrooms. Over the same eight-year period, the (MIHR) Council estimated that 720 to 1180 technicians and technologists would be required to work in the Saskatchewan mining industry.
Given these numbers, it might be more than time to consider the initiation of a Mining Certificate Program in collaboration with the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology (SIAST) to train these skilled workers. Finally, the low representation of the aboriginal population (2%), visible minorities (4%), new Canadians (12%), and women (14%) can be effectively addressed by working with the First Nations University oF Canada and by virtue of the multicultural nature of our faculty, staff, and students.
Dr. Shahid Azam, P.Eng.
Associate Professor, Environmental Systems Engineering