April 9, 2013
Drummond, a bridge to grow and develop
Since 2003, Drummond has sought to train its employees to be better prepared in handling the equipment used for coal exploration and mining; as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility policy, the company has aimed to generate employment, but more than that, since it was established in the country, it has been persistent in wanting to train personnel from the region who, at that time, did not have the specific knowledge needed for the vacancies to be filled, so it had to find an institution that would support a training strategy.
At first, the training was done with the support of the National Apprenticeship Service, SENA, a process that required employees to be moved to the Department of La Guajira and the municipality of Sogamoso, Boyacá for training; in 2006 the SENA in Cesar supported the opening of training courses specializing in Mining. At that point, the SENA was the supporting agency for all of the trainings that were conducted; however, the possibilities grew and eventually, in 2009 to be exact, the Company elected to train its personnel within its own facilities.
It was at this point that the “In-House Courses” emerged and became a reality, created for the specific purpose of training personnel from the region, so that those who were born and resided in the areas of influence would be a majority of the people in charge of these issues and who make up what is now our human resource or human capital.
This is how the In-House courses were formalized and the first internal trainings were started, targeted at operating trucks, it opened 2 courses in 2009 and continued uninterrupted until now: with 2 courses in 2010, 3 in 2011, 2 in 2012 and one underway for 2013.
When deciding to increase trainings and expand them to other fields, groups like the Graders and Caterpillar Tractors, vital to the mining operations, started to become an integral part of this training and its expansion throughout the company; this meant that more people benefitted and participated in the new courses that were developed in the following years. This is an aspect that has been positive for these areas and, undoubtedly, has served to improve worker performance, optimizing the operations, which are now more rigorous and provide new opportunities for society, especially those areas that are closest to Drummond Ltd.
Today, 391 people have benefited from the training and education processes from the In-House Classes, with the Truck Team receiving the greatest support with 354 trainees. Of this group, there are 32 single mothers, who are natives of the mining area.
In the Grader group, 30 people have received training since 2012; 7 people were also trained to handle caterpillar tractors. And a bulldozer course is currently underway with 8 trainees. Of all of the people who have been trained, the majority, approximately 80%, are employed directly by the Company
Ultimately, these opportunities for education and training seek to strengthen Drummond Ltd.’s corporate social responsibility policies, focused on the region’s educational progress. All trained personnel from the municipalities in the mining area of influence and the townships near the company are seen as the integrating principle for each one of the projects that are forged to provide opportunities for development and thereby create better living conditions.
