1. Interface between higher education institutions and the private sector
March 2016

2. Introduction This presentation aims to address:
Challenges and opportunities for
the future demands on higher learning institutions

3. Background
The Letšeng diamond mine started operations in 2003 and commercial production in From 2006 onwards, operations increased the demand for very specialised and scares skills increased both in technical and managerial positions.

4. Development and growth of the Letšeng Mine
Plant 2
commissioned
Commercial
production commenced in 2005
Annual Sales Revenue LSL3,4 billion (approx.) 3

5. Letšeng Future
Underground
Commercial
production commenced in 2005 4

6. Challenges
As operations / production increased the following challenges were evident:
Finding suitably qualified skilled employees
A more pressing need for specialized skills in areas such as mine planning, mineral resource evaluation, and mineral asset valuation became evident
The ability of the operations to retain the scarce skills

7. Challenges For Letṧeng, the greatest threat is:
Increased demand for very specialised and scares skills both in managerial and technical positions which are not available within the country
Dependency on expatriate recruitment- sourced from international markets
The ability to retain the scarce and specialised skills
Mines competing over the existing scarce skills

8. Mining sector: Global broad skills search
Need to elevate debate and base on empirical evidence
Engaged an international and local research agency (over LSL 1.2 million spent)
Mandate: Search & find Basotho in 22 typical mine professions mid and senior managerial roles
Key deliverables:
Detailed inventory of qualified and experienced Basotho who are willing to work in Lesotho
Sources:
Print (newspapers, mining magazines)
Academic institutions (12 alumni sites, National Manpower Secretariat etc.)
Electronic/on-line (LinkedIn, recruitment sites, Ministry of Mining's Facebook page)
Reactive and proactive search techniques:
In excess of hits (cannot determine print media number)
Approx CV’s considered
Approx candidates approached
Final numbers alarmingly low
Letseng Employee Referral Policy ( )
(value to employees) (5% of annual salary 2 times)
(Number of referrals, number of successful referrals) (actual referrals 0) 11

9. Global board skills search: Final candidates for consideration
Candidates which broadly meet the criteria Graduates with limited experience
Graduates with no experience (quality could be
not screened)
Graduates with experience but not in mining or relevant industrial sectors
Category 1:
Category 2:
Category 3:
Category 4:
Category 1
Category 2
Category 3
Category 4
Total
47* 41 55 88
240
* 9 currently employed by sponsors and 24 candidates in 3 jobs therefore 14 remain to cover 19 jobs BUT most candidates unwilling to relocate to Lesotho
Primary finding confirmed GoL research literature: Lesotho is experiencing a skills crisis (managerial and technical skills) which will get worse, clearly there is no ready pool to meet immediate or future staffing needs 12

10. Global Skills Search
Ministry of Mining: Local Scan of Mining Sector (November 2013) (page 15)
– ‘Technical skills required by mining companies are in short supply in the country…’ •
Government of Lesotho: Minerals & Mining Policy (June ‘15) (page 14)
– ‘Lesotho…recognises all-encompassing capacity deficits in the entire mining chain.
These constraints effect Government and mining companies’
Ministry of Education and Training Council for Higher Education: Scarce Skills Survey (October 2014) (page 135)
– ‘The findings revealed that there is a high shortage of scarce skills in Lesotho’
Ministry of Education and Training: Technical and Vocational Development Report (2015) •
Wide evidence of critical shortage of technical skills
Further evidence that technical training is not aligned with nor meets the standards of labour market requirements •
Ministry of Mining: Mining Dialogue (July 2015)
– Acknowledgement that there is an in-country mining capacity shortage 10

11. Scarce skills in the Mining industry
Department
Skills Requirement
Mining
Mining Engineers
Technical services
Mineral Resource Specialist
Geologists/Geo-technical Specialists
Mine planners
Mineral Surveyors
Treatment
Plant Metallurgical/ process/ chemical Engineers
Plant Production Engineers
Recovery Technicians
Safety
Advanced Life Support Paramedics

12. Business Initiatives
The following initiatives have been put in place to ensure that the business demands for these scarce and critical skills are met.   
Development pool
Letṧeng has created an on-going development pool for scarce skills designed to meet the future demands of the business. This pool comprises of graduates or trainees who are given an opportunity to gain real work experience, but are not necessarily earmarked for a specific position. This is a future investment of the mine. To date Letšeng has invested M , 71 towards development of the trainees in the pool.

13. Business Initiatives Scholarships
Every year, Letšeng in consultation with the Government has to determine the priority study areas for the subsequent year in order to meet the immediate and long-term mining demands. These students take up their studies with South African institution because the academic fields that they are studying towards are not offered in country.. The company has invested a sum of M , 66 on scholarships in contribution towards the development of Natural resources.

14. Educational Scholarships with a focus on natural resources from 2006-date (41)
Field of study
Electronic Engineering
BSc/MSc Mining Enginering/Mineral Processing
MSC Chemical Engineering (Metallurgy)
BCom Hon in Accounting
NDipl in Mining Engineering
P/Grad in Engineering
MSc Geology
Mineral Survey
BSc Mechatronics
NDip Internal Auditing
Mtech Environmental Health
Honours Geo Tech
Courses related to the development of natural resources 16

15. Status quo of the Higher Learning Institutions
In Lesotho, there are a host of higher learning institutions which provide both technical and vocational training, but none are specific mining- related programmes and this means that it very difficult for the institutions to produce the calibre of skills required in the mining sector
Every year, graduates are produced by these institutions, but the majority of these graduates are unable to secure employment in the mining sector mainly because they do not possess the skills required by the mining industry and while the fraction that goes into employment is a mismatch to what the mining industry requires e.g. land survey vs. mineral survey.

16. Status quo of the Higher Learning Institutions
Therefore, mining companies are forced to incur further costs for training and re-training of graduates to ensure that they fit in well within their roles. This also means that the skills are not readily available as they still need to undergo intensive on the job training.

17. Conclusion
Key is that not one role player alone can remedy the situation Long-term industry partnerships with higher learning institutions so as to increase enrolment in mining engineering programmes, aimed at producing the required numbers and range of specialized skills to meet the needs of the mining sector.

18. Recommendations
The idea of training for supply must be revisited by the Higher Learning institutions as it will serve the interests of both the graduates and the industry.
It is therefore recommended that the training institutions, through the direction of the Council for Higher Education, consider re-engineering their programmes/ curriculum for the greater relevance of the mining industry and for higher quality.
The training institutions are also urged to partner with the mining companies in order to clearly understand their needs so as to inform the review or re-design of their curricula for inclusion of the mining specific programmes. This initiative will ensure that the mining skills pipeline system is kept relevant to the industry needs

19. Recommendations
Industry needs to be an integral part, sitting on councils and relevant bodies.
Collaboration cannot be overemphasised
If it is industry alone it is not sustainable and if it is higher learning alone the relevance is always challenged

20. Questions/ Comments
Thank you !!!