| Mining industry’s skills shortage critical |
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| Written by Staff Reporters | |
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Namibia is facing a critical shortage of skills in the mining industry. The Chamber of Mines of Namibia recently commissioned a survey on skills availability in Namibia, whose results show that there is a shortage of 37% for professionals and 15% for critical artisan trades.
The mining industry is expanding with a lot of uranium mines scheduled to be opened soon. The chamber says the productivity of the mines depends heavily on the availability of sufficient power.
“Therefore, a shortage or unavailability of power for
the mining industry will translate directly into pressure on the
Namibian economic growth,” the chamber said in a report.
Since the findings of the skills audit, the chamber has developed a plan to address the skills-shortage problem. The chamber aims to focus on increasing the intake of apprentices and also in collaboration with the Namibia Institute of Mining and Technology (NIMT), the chamber it plans to evaluate and up-skill unemployed artisans. The chamber wants the government to also improve education standards by improving quality of education at secondary, primary and tertiary levels. The chamber has also assisted the Ministry of Home Affairs financially in efficiency improvement initiatives including the upgrading and replacement of computers, the processing of identity documents and recently with a pilot project for work-permit processing. The chamber is assisting the ministry with expectations that the efficiencies will improve. “The area that remains of concern to the Chamber of Mines is the inability of the Immigrations Service Board to sit due to no quorum. This results in protracted delays and subsequent frustrations of our members,” it said. The chamber has recommended that the Immigration Act be reviewed. It has also proposed the granting of three-year work permits to critical skills instead of one-year permits. “South Africa is granting five-year work permits. The increase of skills migrating from Namibia is noteworthy,” the chamber said. |
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