Sixteen trades professionals at the Porgera Mine in Enga Province are now qualified assessors under the National Apprenticeship and Trade Testing Board (NATTB).
This comes after a two-day NATTB Assessor training delivered by NATTB Assistant Director Arthur Geno, at the Porgera Mine from 24-25 September, 2019.
This means these assessors will assist NATTB officers to conduct assessments on the mine’s trade trainees, unlike previous years when the assessment on trainees was done only by the NATTB representatives.
Maintenance Training Technical Specialist Craig Reaks said these 16 assessors will now assist NATTB assessors award competent trade trainees qualification as tradespeople.
“This in turn helps to develop not only skills of PJV employees, but also PNG as a whole.
“We also thank the mine’s senior management for supporting this endeavour to allow our trade trainees to be qualified tradespeople,” Reaks added.
Executive Managing Director, Anthony Esplin, said having qualified tradespeople was necessary for the successful operation of the mine.
“Our employees are our greatest asset so training to continuously improve our skills set, is important to us.”
The two-day NATTB Assessor training on site covered understanding competency-based assessment, evidence gathering, planning the assessment, developing assessment tools and conducting an assessment.
Participants Judah Numelah, a Supervisor at the Fixed Plant Maintenance, Ernest Kenny, a Supervisor at the Surface Mobile Fabrication and Machine Workshop, and Jonah Raima, an Electrical Tradesperson, say the training will add more value to their different roles.
Numelah saw the training as a bonus as it would help him mentor employees under his supervision, to build confidence and ensure efficiency at the workshop.
Kenny said one thing he drew from the training was gathering evidence.
“Through factual information gathering, we can assess and recommend competent employees.”
Meanwhile, Raima also agreed that providing feedback to the candidates was important when conducting trade tests, in order to produce highly skilled and competent technicians.
“As a trained assessor, I expect myself to impart knowledge to new technicians and to see the development of more technical professionals in the industry.”
He also said the NATTB training was relevant in the evolving industry.