Future Institute of Australia has spoken to Business News about its work in delivering virtual training workshops to more than 100 employees at Centamin's goldmine in Egypt.
Victoria Park-based Future Institute of Australia has been contracted to deliver virtual training workshops to more than 100 employees working at Centamin’s goldmine in Egypt.
Future Institute of Australia is a private training college that provides tailored training solutions to businesses.
Centamin, which was founded in Perth and is now based in the UK, produces more than 400,000 ounces of gold from its Sukari operations each year.
The company has awarded a $1 million, four-year contract to FIA to deliver virtual training workshops to 140 Sukari workers in leadership roles.
Some of the programs will be translated into Arabic and there will also be translators on location, FIA says, noting more than 95 per cent of the Sukari workforce are Egyptian.
Training is under way, with participants to also attend one-on-one virtual coaching sessions.
“As a team, we are proud to have our work recognised and that the quality of our programs have enabled us to launch Australian Leadership Standards to the international gold industry”, FIA co-founder and managing director Michael McHugh said.
Centamin is planning to increase the number of Egyptian workers in leadership positions in 2022, from 67 per cent to 77 per cent.
Chief executive Martin Horgan said the company aimed to develop and create opportunities for its local workforce.
“Future Institute of Australia’s extensive leadership training experience, combined with their deep understanding of the gold mining industry, made them the preferred partner and we look forward to working with them on this important and exciting initiative,” he said.
FIA was established as a registered training organisation (RTO) in Perth in 2015.
Its founding directors also include Janet Curran and Mark Iriks.
“We all had different experiences with leadership through our careers,” Mr McHugh told Business News.
“What we found was that it wasn’t until later in our careers that we invested in ourselves and thought, it would’ve been great if we’d had this earlier in our careers.”
He said the founders discovered that leadership development – in particular for supervisors and front-line leaders – had been an issue in Australia for the past 20 years.
“Most companies promote from within and often they select the best technical person, or the most prowess technically, or [those] with a good attitude.
“It’s not until after [that companies realise] it’s not really working as they thought it would and they wonder why.
“It’s so common across a wide range of industries.”
FIA began training leaders within the mining sector, in particular those working for mining services companies.
In the past five years, it has worked with the likes of Perenti Global’s Ausdrill and Barminco divisions, Johannesburg-based AngloGold Ashanti and local mining company Iluka Resources.
Mr McHugh said FIA has trained more than 700 individuals in leadership roles, including 180 supervisors at Barminco which provides mining services to the Sukari operation.
“They actually introduced us to Sukari because they were looking for some leadership training,” he said.
“They were having similar issues to what we have in Australia and were very interested in Australian nationally recognised training.”
FIA is delivering three programs to the Sukari employees: a Diploma of Leadership and Management (for managers), a Certificate IV in Leadership and Management (for superintendents), and a non-accredited Leadership Program (for leading hands and supervisors).
The business originally planned to deliver the workshops in person but had to make alternative arrangements in light of travel restrictions.
“They [Centamin] needed the training, it was a key objective of theirs, and we needed to come up with solutions on how we were going to do that,” Mr McHugh said.
“That’s not as simple as it may sound.
“Face-to-face training in leadership topics is very different online; all the activities have to change, it’s very complex, and obviously reliant on technology.”
He said FIA found Zoom to be the most effective platform in delivering the workshops, since it provided training-inducive tools including ‘break out’ rooms, which split meetings into separate sections.
Mr McHugh said a delay in the delivery of information – through the FIA trainer and then a translator – was a challenge, but one easily overcome.
“Keeping the group sizes small has been key,” he said.
“Prior to each session, our customisation team meets with the facilitator [FIA trainer], two Sukari representatives and the translators.
"They work through the activities.
“There’s a really solid connection between the translators and the facilitators to make sure the [workshops] are understood.
“We’ve also added some one-on-one coaching… to follow up after the session and make sure that the training is resonating and that they [leaders] are applying it to their roles.”
