Newmont Ghana plans to invest $17,000 each in 14 apprentices who will participate in a four-year training program to develop skills in occupational safety, slinging and lifting, hand tools, power hand tools, drawing, first aid, trade math and basic electrical. Upon completion, graduates will earn the City and Guilds of London certificate, which accredits vocational, managerial and engineering training.
Designed to support and supplement current recruitment standard shortfalls, and to provide training and development opportunities for Ahafo communities, the investment is but one example of Newmont Ghana's provision of support for schools, equipment and training.
Joyce Aryee, chief executive officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, said the global economy was becoming a skills-based one and that the survival of today's youth in such a system depended largely on the set of skills one would acquire.
"The situation in the mining industry is no different and requires a largely skilled work force to stay on top of the competition," she said. Aryee commended Newmont for instituting the program that would provide the young apprentices with lifelong skills.
