The Queensland Minerals and Energy Academy students’ Graduation day enabled them to showcase their projects by presenting them to the Senior Management Team of Glencore Mine.
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Human Resources Manager for the Glencore North Queensland Copper Assets, Leanne Ryder said the Senior Management team quizzed the students on how they came to their end product.
“The students presented the results of the projects which they had been working on for a week, then were asked questions about specific outcomes to their projects,” Ms Ryder said.
They were placed in several groups under the categories of Trade and Engineering then each group was issued with a task and a mentor from the Glencore staff.
The Engineering students gained access to the Glencore Mine site and were under the guidance and leadership of Glencore Engineers.
“They have had the opportunity to experience and be part of working in the mining industry over the week. The students met a lot of like-minded people and saw some interesting things, they wouldn't normally get to see,” she said.
“The Trade Groups are mostly local and Cloncurry students, they have been working with our apprentices and have displayed great team work.”
“Our Glencore apprentices really enjoyed taking the time out to empower the students to do well on their projects.”
QMEA Trade Camp Organiser Kim Frost developed the motorised push-bike project because it encourages the students to be hands on in a number of different trades whilst completing the project.
“It’s not just focussing on one particular trade area, it provides a great overview of all the trades,” Ms Ryder said.
“We have repeated this project for a couple of years now in the Mount Isa Camp because its a popular project. The students love creating the motorised push-bike and love to jump on and ride around.”
The outcome of the QMEA Trade and Engineering camps is to influence and motivate the students to consider a career in mining.
“After the celebrations today, they will go back to enjoying the last week of their school holidays and hopefully return to Term 3 motivated to do well and secure employment in the mining industry in the future,” Ms Ryder said.
“We are seeing the benefits of investing in these entry level programs. A large portion of our apprentices that commenced with the company this year came through these school programs. We value them, they are very beneficial and it compliments our recruiting and attraction strategy.”
