Exclusive Opinion Piece
In light of the challenges and volatility being experienced in South Africa’s mining sector, engineering, in particular, mining engineering continues to hold its place as an attractive career option, explains Professor Fred Cawood, Professor of Mine Surveying and Head of Wits University’s School of Mining Engineering.
This is validated, he explains, based on many factors, one of which is the 21410 applications (meeting the minimum requirements) received at the university for first year undergraduate studies in the various fields of engineering – bearing in mind that only 856 places are available for this field of study in 2014.
Mining engineering took top honours this year with 3568 applicants competing for the 150 places available (a ratio of 1 seat: 24 applicants). In 2012, the school received 2000 applications for only 150 places available for first year students. Mining engineers play a key role in the design, scheduling, and excavation of mineral resources in South Africa and around the world.
The demand for engineering degrees [in terms of applications received] was followed by mechanical engineering, civil engineering and electrical engineering.
Given the number of mining engineering applications, and to eradicate any possibility of high number of students not being successful in the first year, a rigorous process comprising career counselling focused on several issues is undertaken via a combination of ranking matric M-scores and an interview process with the School. The 742 students who qualified for this process are those who achieved an overall 70% average (as the lowest) and above. The Professor is undertaking some 10 interviews a day [at the time of conducting this interview], and in most cases parents are also present.
“This is a fair and thorough process undertaken by the School of Mining Engineering. The interview takes on a student-centred approach to ensure that students are making the correct career decision for the future and to assess if they are the most capable, interested, dedicated, financially supported and qualified students for the programme.”
For example, Cawood explains that some of the students that have attended the interview, also qualify and meet the requirements for their second choice of study, such as medicine – it is important that the student and parents are confident in the choices they make – so too for the School.
“This programme quite simply answers the question of whether we want to meet the minimum requirements in producing mining engineers or if we want to contribute to the best mining engineers that can set South Africa up to be a world leader in mining,” says the head of one of the most recognised of the top mining engineering schools throughoutthe world.
Meanwhile, from a national perspective, Cawood says that the country continues to produce enough graduates to meet the demand for future needs of industry, government and academia. But, there in also lies another challenge.
“The country is producing the ‘cream of the crop’ – there is not enough diploma’s or higher certificates being developed to produce other critical skills required in this industry. There still remain concerns at an artisan level – for every mining engineering graduate, there is a need for about five artisans.”
Ends.
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About The Witwatersrand University School of Mining Engineering: It is the largest English speaking school of mining engineering in the world. With a student body in excess of 800 students – 36% are female studying at undergraduate level. Offering accredited world-class programmes for South Africa, Africa and the world, relevant fields of study in mining include Safety, Health, Environment and Community (SHEC), through the Centre for Sustainability in Mining and Industry (CSMI) and Mine Ventilation, through the Centre for Mechanised Mining Systems (CMMS), as well as multi-disciplinary research programme with strong links to the rest of the University of the Witwatersrand.
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https://www.wits.ac.za/academic/ebe/4810/miningeng.html