Education – Box Hill Institute

In the 1990’s, before the introduction of the first Extractive Industries Training Package MNQ98, education for employees of a quarry was limited.

It catered for the management in the industry. Prospective managers would be trained in disciplines such as legislation, planning, finances, engineering, operations and have to undergo a rigorous examination at the hands of the Quarry Manager’s Advisory Panel in order to be deemed competent to manage a quarry operation.

Student numbers at this time were low due to the selective nature of education on offer.

With the introduction of MNQ98 and subsequent RII Training Packages we have seen the opportunities to gain a relevant Surface Extraction Operation’s education expand enormously to incorporate apprentices, operators new to the industry, experienced operators and supervisors.

As a result, student numbers have grown exponentially. We are seeing consistent numbers of Supervisors (Cert. IV) and Managers (Diploma and Adv. Diploma) attend classes over the last
10 years. Operator level training (Cert. II & III) numbers have begun to swell from a consistent average of 20 per year to around 200 commencing/participating in training in the last 18 months.

CMPA training has seen their numbers increase with additional mobile plant units being trained over a number of sites.

CMPA have been pro-active in organising training workshops for its members to assist with the demands of the current period of extensive construction activity. Box Hill Institute have attended workshops that covered Blast Management Plans and ERR Continuous Improvement Programs to hear the latest recommendation from Anna Cronin and Implementation plans from Peter Betson from DEDJTR.

Box Hill Institute delivers the Work Safely and Conduct Local Risk training with the aid of the CMPA reference manual as a valuable tool. The CMPA produce a number of excellent reference
manuals which will be part of the course teaching manuals for the Certificate IV in Surface Extraction Operations course.

The current RII training package offers a total of 58 qualifications (spread over Metalliferous & Coal mining, Civil Infrastructure, Drilling and Surface Extraction Operations) with 900 Units of Competency to choose from (including imported Units). This broad scope of options allows the student to have their education tailored to suit their personal work situation. The alignment of the training package to the National Framework’s access and equity philosophies allows everyone an entry into training and assessment. This means that education within the industry is available at any level.

Box Hill Institute’s commitment to fair and flexible delivery and assessment ensures that no matter where you are located and what you are doing we can come to you with a tailored package to suit all your employees from the tools to the board rooms.

Diane Wilson and Noel Pickering

Box Hill Institute

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