AngloGold Ashanti has held a graduation ceremony for some 73 apprentices at the company’s Engineering Training Centre at its Obuasi Mine.

The students, mostly from AGA communities, were schooled in disciplines such as electrical, mechanical, instrumental, mobile equipment, welding, fabrication and others at the cost of the AGA. They were awarded certificates of competency for successfully going through the course.

Mr. Kwaku Awuku, Senior Manager, Human Resources of the Obuasi mine said: “Training and development is a priority for AGA to ensure that we have the right people with the right skills and knowledge for the right roles to execute work safely, responsibly and effectively."

Mr. Awuku hoped the acquired skills at the training will earn the grandaunts good jobs anywhere in the world, and urged them to strive for the best as they gear-up for the challenges ahead of them.

He said training and development are a priority for the AGA, to ensure that the company recruits the right people with right skills and knowledge to execute the right roles at work, since safety, responsibility and effectiveness is critical for the grandaunts to turn the company’s weakness and threats to build on its strengths and opportunities.

“Let’s use your newly-acquired skills and experience as tools to navigate through the myriad challenges facing Obuasi and carve a niche for yourselves,” he stated.

He disclosed that AGA’s partnership with the communities, and the Ghanaian society in general, has contributed significantly to capacity building in junior, middle and senior management roles in AGA operations in Ghana, Guinea, Mali and other countries, which he said is in line with AGA values of ensuring that communities and societies where it operates benefit from its presence.

He asserted that the AGA has been offering the apprentice programme as one of the training and development courses since 2004 in Ghana at its own cost, saying the apprenticeships are offered to new graduates from the polytechnics and technical institutions, mostly from AGA communities.

Driven by the need to address the skill-deficiency level in Obuasi’s engineering department, the centre was set up in 1987 to provide on the job training for the workers.

It currently has well-equipped laboratories, workshops as well as welding and fabrication shops. Courses offered by the centre include mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, mobile equipment, welding and fabrication.

The centre trained about 7,564 people in 2013, compared with 5,556 in 2012; 7,353 in 2011, and 3,053 in 2010.

He said the apprenticeship sector is accredited by the United Nation’s City and Guilds, and the prime motive of the sector was to address deficient skills level in the Obuasi engineering department and general management.

The centre also offers apprenticeship training programmes, senior technician programmes, supervisors’ training programmes and graduates’ engineering training programmes, and has been training not only AGA employees but others from Golden Star Resources, Carmeuse Lime, WAMCO, GHACEM, Hess Equatorial Guinea, West Africa Pipeline and a host of others.

Mr. Hussein Abugri, Senior Manager, Human Resource Projects & Administration, advised the new graduates to make a difference by using their skills innovatively; and also urged them to share and extend their experience with people in the communities who are yet to get an opportunity to enrol at the centre.

“You are graduating at a time that the company is undergoing serious transformation, but you are lucky to have skills and experience which will take you to any place you want to work provided you are hard-working,” he said.

Mr. Solomon Tweneboa, speaking on behalf of the graduates, thanked the AGA for providing them with the opportunity to upgrade their skills, hoping that the training will go a long way to reduce the unemployment situation in Obuasi and the country.

“We certainly applaud AGA for the scholarship and practical training freely offered to us, and pray for the successful transformation of the Obuasi operation which is the Obuasi economy’s mainstay.

“The people in the communities, the region and the country as a whole need the mine, given its contribution. We call on the company to extend the training to more people in the communities,” he said.