Abstract

Concerns around the future of the mining workforce have been identified amongst the top challenges in the mining sector in recent executive surveys (see Deloitte 2020 Mining Trends and E&Y Business Risks and Opportunities). For example, 82% of employers surveyed in a recent MiHR Labour Market Outlook cited upgrading the skills of supervisors and managers as one of their biggest challenges. This highlights the need for ongoing, dynamic upskilling and training activities that adapt to changes in the business environment.

The first step in developing such activities is to better understand in which areas upskilling and training is required. By analysing the results of the recent CIM MES National membership survey, we contribute to this understanding. We gained a better understanding of the diversity and makeup of our current CIM MES membership base, which will allow us to offer more tailored events driven by member interests, and may contribute to attracting more diverse members to the MES group. We also identified gaps, interests and trends in professional development among mining management and finance professionals and those interested in the business aspects of the mining sector.

The MES Spring 2021 membership survey was a good first step in getting a snapshot of membership composition, practice area, and topics and skills of interest. It will equip MES in offering educational events and skills development opportunities of relevance, to better serve members and potentially engage new members from the broader mining community.

Our presentation will report on the survey results and analysis, identified limitations to the survey and proposed solutions for the future.

To take advantage of the insights we gained from this analysis we suggest the following next steps:

• In future surveys address the limitations found
• An annual repetition of the survey, which will enable us to identify trends in our membership makeup and in topics and skills of interest
• The expansion of the survey to the national CIM group to further our understanding of the broader CIM membership, to identify opportunities to improve CIM offerings and contribute to attracting new members to the organization
• The expansion of the survey to the broader industry to contribute to the need for re- and upskilling in the industry