Focusing on the next generation of the industry

The mining industry is not immune from labour shortages facing the globe. However, getting students involved in the industry and showcasing the many opportunities available to them ensures that young people can realise the important part they can play in the industry.

“Seeing is believing,” said New South Wales Minerals Council industry skills and careers policy manager, Sam Skinner. It’s one of the reasons she is excited about this year’s expanded IMARC NextGen program.

Hundreds of primary, secondary and tertiary students will filter through Australia’s biggest annual mining conference and exhibition in Sydney in October. With its wide, unique cross-section of industry leaders in attendance, the event will elevate sustainability, critical minerals, technology, and socioeconomic conversations that will dominate industry and media discourse.

Skinner said, more importantly, it will make the themes “real” for attendees.

“We can’t just hope that seeing [NSW] Premier Minns on the television talking about how great it is that NSW has 17 of the 30 critical minerals and what that is going to mean for us in 30 years will inspire kids to want to be part of it and produce a shift in awareness,” she said. “Year 10 students aren’t watching the news.

“Kids don’t tend to pay attention to stuff they don’t yet know they’re interested in.

“And so it’s up to us to put it before them.

“Until we do, I don’t think we will see a shift. That’s why this event is so critically important.

“You can’t beat seeing, hearing and touching the realities of an industry when you’re talking to young people. And IMARC covers all of that. They’ll be talking to young professionals. They’ll be talking to senior executives. They’ll be up close and engaging with machinery and technology. They’ll be talking about what the industry will look like in five-or-10 years when they’re moving into it, and I think it’s a great thing.”

“To get young people who are working on interesting projects at university, who are leading the technological change in the industry, and who are building the projects, and put them in front of students in year 10 who are thinking about what subjects they’re going to study for the HSC and what they’re going to do beyond that, that is real and relatable to them in their immediate experience.”

Rejuvenation of Australia’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) talent pipeline is a nationwide work in progress.

The urgency of engagement, or re-engagement, with tertiary-level geoscience, engineering students, and institutions by sections of the resources industry has increased.

Further up in the talent pipeline and outside it, the success of several grass-roots earth and environmental science and broader STEM engagement and education initiatives in the past decade has been remarkable.

Evidence of this will be fully displayed at IMARC, where about 200 years 5 and 6 students will attend under the Australian Resources & Energy Employer Association (AREEA) Bright Future STEM banner.

They will be exposed to CoRE Learning Foundation’s latest Minecraft-based education and teaching games and meet the founder of the trailblazing foundation program, Suzy Urbaniak. They will walk the exhibition floor, visit the gamification zone, and hear from industry experts and other students.

“Investing in the future STEM talent pipeline has never been more critical; you can’t be what you can’t see or experience,” Urbaniak said. “The games are a way of immersing Gen Alphas in the earth science curriculum and overcoming traditional teaching-learning barriers. They’re also a window into the exciting world of resource industry careers.”

AREEA’s national Bright Future STEM program, delivered to about 10,000 year 5-6 students at circa 160 schools each year, was conceived in 2019.

“We piloted the program in Melbourne in one of the most fossil-fuel-sensitive postcodes in Australia,” said AREEA deputy CEO, Tara Diamond. “We thought, if we can do it in inner city Melbourne, in a postcode with the lowest sentiment towards fossil fuel industries, we will be able to do this anywhere in Australia. And they loved it. The teachers loved it. The school loved it. And so we knew we were onto something.

“When you put [resources] industry people – role models – in front of the kids to talk about the jobs they do, talk about the fact that the industry is moving towards net zero, and they’re in a place that influences the world’s journey to net zero, it can change perceptions of the industry.”

For more information, visit the IMARC website here.

Image: Beacon Events