UMaT SELECTED AS CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE (Page 21)

Story: Kwame Asiedu Marfo, Takoradi

THE University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) has been selected as a Centre of Excellence for training high-level manpower in mining engineering and allied disciplines in Africa, under the Human Resources Development (HRD) programme of the African Mining Partnership (AMP).
The government is, therefore, offering assistance to the university to improve on its infrastructure to meet the task.
The Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines, Madam Esther Obeng Dapaah, announced this at the graduation of 28 senior employees of the Tarkwa and Damang Mines of Gold Fields Ghana Limited (GGL) after eight months’ management development training programme at Tarkwa.
To date, 53 senior employees of the company have benefited from the programme since its inception in 2006 and about 30 per cent of the 2006 year group have been promoted to managerial positions
The training programme was organised in partnership with the University of Stellenbosch Business School in South Africa.
Madam Dapaah appealed to the Ghana Chamber of Mines and its members to collaborate with the university to fashion out appropriate training programmes for manpower development at all levels in the mining industry.
She said experience had shown that a trained workforce was an asset to the company, the employee and the country at large.
“By investing in the careers of their employees, employers enjoy improved retention rates, increased productivity, and a more committed and conscientious workforce,” she added.
The minister urged Gold Fields to extend the facility to the lower echelon of the workforce if they were not doing so already.
Madam Dapaah expressed her gratitude to the management of Gold Fields Ghana for instituting the programme for its staff and appealed to other mining companies to emulate their example.
The General Manager of Gold Fields Ghana Limited, Mr Ludwig Eybers, said the company had spent US$1 million in training programmes for employees this year and had budgeted same for the 2008 financial year.
He explained that the GGL Management Development Programme was a world-class leadership development programme.
He said the Gold Fields Management Development Programme (MDP) provided current and potential managers of Gold Fields Ghana, a world-class university-level leadership development.
This programme, he explained, was the flag ship component of the company’s commitment to build capacity among local managerial employees to take up leadership positions in Gold Fields Ghana and the group at large.
Mr Eybers said the University of Stellenbosch Business School-Executive Development (USB-ED) in South Africa was a fully fledged business institution.
He said the USB-ED programme also developed a tried and tested approach to customised programmes, where the approach customises programmes according to the specific needs of both the company involved, as well as the needs of the target group, to ensure a strategic fit.