SKILLS & DEVELOPMENT
Building skills in mining communities BME’s partnerships with training providers have seen unemployed youth being trained in technical skills to improve their employability and even open doors to starting small businesses.
A Welding training is among the vocational skills sponsored by BME
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ccording to Reuben Ramahlare, senior human resources business partner at BME, the signing of service agreements earlier this year with training colleges around the country is part of an important social empowerment drive. “An important strategic focus for us is to develop and empower communities through training, as part of our positive impact in the areas where we operate,” says Ramahlare. “This includes communities near our operations in the North West, Northern Cape, Mpumalanga and Gauteng – and targets 70% women’s participation in the programmes.” Through this initiative, BME has been sponsoring the training of a range of vocational skills such as welding, plumbing and general property maintenance. The training bodies provide learners with certificates of competence, facilitating their path to the job market or self-employment. He notes that groups of learners are put forward by local municipalities and spend up to a month in training. In the case of the welding
