Interface between higher education institutions and the private sector

1. Interface between higher education institutions and the private sector March 2016

2. Introduction This presentation aims toaddress: Challenges and opportunities for the future demands on higher learning institutions

3. Background The Letšeng diamond mine started operations in 2003 and commercial production in 2005. From 2006 onwards, operations increased the demand for very specialised and scares skills increased both in technical and managerial positions.

4. Development and growth ofthe Letšeng Mine Plant2 commissioned Commercial production commenced in2005 Annual Sales Revenue LSL3,4 billion(approx.) 3

5. LetšengFuture Underground Commercial production commenced in2005 4

6. Challenges As operations / production increased the following challenges were evident: • Finding suitably qualified skilled employees • A more pressing need for specialized skills in areas such as mine planning, mineral resource evaluation, and mineral asset valuation became evident • The ability of the operations to retain the scarce skills

7. Challenges For Letṧeng, the greatest threat is: • Increased demand for very specialised and scares skills both in managerial and technical positions which are not available within the country • Dependency on expatriate recruitment- sourced from international markets • The ability to retain the scarce and specialised skills • Mines competing over the existing scarce skills

8. Mining sector: Global broad skillssearch • Need to elevate debate and base on empiricalevidence • Engagedaninternationalandlocalresearchagency(over LSL1.2millionspent) • Mandate: Search & find Basotho in 22 typical mine professions mid andsenior managerial roles • Keydeliverables: • Detailed inventory of qualified and experienced Basothowho are willing to work in Lesotho • Sources: • Print (newspapers, miningmagazines) • Academicinstitutions(12alumnisites,NationalManpowerSecretariatetc.) • Electronic/on-line (LinkedIn, recruitment sites, Ministry of Mining's Facebookpage) • Reactive and proactive searchtechniques: • In excess of 100 000 hits (cannot determine print medianumber) • Approx. 4 400 CV’sconsidered • Approx. 2 800 candidatesapproached • Final numbers alarminglylow • Letseng Employee Referral Policy(2014-2015) • (value to employees) (5% of annualsalary 2 times) • (Number of referrals, number of successful referrals) (actual referrals0) 11

9. Global board skillssearch: Final candidates forconsideration Candidates which broadly meet the criteria Graduates with limitedexperience Graduates with no experience (quality couldbe notscreened) Graduates with experience but not in mining or relevant industrialsectors Category1: Category2: Category3: Category4: * 9 currently employed by sponsors and 24 candidates in 3 jobs therefore 14 remain to cover 19 jobs BUT most candidates unwilling to relocate toLesotho Primary finding confirmed GoL research literature: Lesotho is experiencing a skills crisis (managerial and technical skills) which will get worse, clearly there is no ready pool to meet immediate or future staffingneeds 12

10. Global Skills Search • Ministry of Mining: Local Scan of Mining Sector (November 2013) (page15) • – ‘Technical skills required by mining companies are in short supplyinthe country…’ Government of Lesotho: Minerals & Mining Policy (June ‘15) (page14) • – ‘Lesotho…recognises all-encompassing capacity deficits in the entire miningchain. These constraints effect Government and miningcompanies’ • Ministry of Education and Training Council for Higher Education: Scarce SkillsSurvey (October 2014) (page135) • – ‘The findings revealed that there is a high shortage of scarce skills in Lesotho’ • Ministry of Education and Training: Technical and Vocational Development Report(2015) • • Wide evidence of critical shortage of technicalskills • Furtherevidencethattechnicaltrainingisnotalignedwithnor meetsthestandardsof labour marketrequirements • Ministry of Mining: Mining Dialogue (July2015) – Acknowledgement that there is an in-country mining capacityshortage 10

11. Scarce skills in the Mining industry

12. Business Initiatives • The following initiatives have been put in place to ensure that the business demands for these scarce and critical skills are met. • Development pool • Letṧeng has created an on-going development pool for scarce skills designed to meet the future demands of the business. This pool comprises of graduates or trainees who are given an opportunity to gain real work experience, but are not necessarily earmarked for a specific position. This is a future investment of the mine. To date Letšeng has invested M6 067 884, 71 towards development of the trainees in the pool.

13. Business Initiatives Scholarships Every year, Letšeng in consultation with the Government has to determine the priority study areas for the subsequent year in order to meet the immediate and long-term mining demands. These students take up their studies with South African institution because the academic fields that they are studying towards are not offered in country.. The company has invested a sum of M 8 334 451, 66 on scholarships in contribution towards the development of Natural resources.

14. Educational Scholarships with afocus on naturalresources from 2006-date (41) • Courses related to the development of naturalresources 16

15. Status quo of the Higher Learning Institutions In Lesotho, there are a host of higher learning institutions which provide both technical and vocational training, but none are specific mining- related programmes and this means that it very difficult for the institutions to produce the calibre of skills required in the mining sector • Every year, graduates are produced by these institutions, but the majority of these graduates are unable to secure employment in the mining sector mainly because they do not possess the skills required by the mining industry and while the fraction that goes into employment is a mismatch to what the mining industry requires e.g. land survey vs. mineral survey.

16. Status quo of the Higher Learning Institutions • Therefore, mining companies are forced to incur further costs for training and re-training of graduates to ensure that they fit in well within their roles. This also means that the skills are not readily available as they still need to undergo intensive on the job training.

17. Conclusion Key is that not one role player alone can remedy the situation Long-term industry partnerships with higher learning institutions so as to increase enrolment in mining engineering programmes, aimed at producing the required numbers and range of specialized skills to meet the needs of the mining sector.

18. Recommendations The idea of training for supply must be revisited by the Higher Learning institutions as it will serve the interests of both the graduates and the industry. • It is therefore recommended that the training institutions, through the direction of the Council for Higher Education, consider re-engineering their programmes/ curriculum for the greater relevance of the mining industry and for higher quality. • The training institutions are also urged to partner with the mining companies in order to clearly understand their needs so as to inform the review or re-design of their curricula for inclusion of the mining specific programmes. This initiative will ensure that the mining skills pipeline system is kept relevant to the industry needs

19. Recommendations Industry needs to be an integral part, sitting on councils and relevant bodies. Collaboration cannot be overemphasised If it is industry alone it is not sustainable and if it is higher learning alone the relevance is always challenged

20. Questions/ Comments Thank you !!!