Industry Insights: Universities and Recruitment
The next generation of miners
“Operationally speaking, all mines must establish a memorandum of understanding (MOU), exploration agreements, and continued working agreements with locals and First Nations communities in order to progress their assets. We want to develop future employees that understand how important that social process is to the company they are working for.”
Audrey Penner, President and CEO, Northern College
“Fundamental and basic research is often funded by government agencies and federal funds, and creates a base of ideas and seed projects that have potential to scale up to applications, tests, and pilots.”
Julián Ortiz, Head of Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining, Queen’s University
“We’re experiencing a collision of an overheated mining market, talent pools that are getting shallower by the year, and a resistance or inability of companies to both incubate talent internally and to truly professionalize their recruitment functions and initiatives. It’s the latter that companies can truly control.”
Erik Buckland, Client Director, Lincoln Strategic International
“Current immigration policies do not assist the industry in recruiting overseas. I believe we should be lobbying much more strongly to get immigration laws changed to allow qualified mining talent easy access to Canada for job offers.”
Chris Stafford, President, C.J. Stafford
“Sometimes companies have an idea for a new process or prototype but lack the resources or time to carry it out. In these instances, we build the project for them, and they provide funding to subsidize it.”
Mike Commito, Director of Applied Research & Innovation, Cambrian College
