Student Perspectives on Partnerships and Employment

1
Student Perspectives on Partnerships and
Employment

• Michael Fuller
• Graduating UBC Mining Engineer
• The Student-Industry Partnership
• CIM Conference and Exhibition
• Edmonton, Alberta
• 7 May 2008

2
Roadmap

• Examples of Partnership from UBC
• Event Sponsorship
• Recruitment Connections
• Opportunities
• National Recruitment Survey Results
• Conclusion with Key Points

3
Event Sponsorship

• Annual Canadian Mining Games competition
• 160 senior mining engineering students, from 10
  universities
• Field Trips
• 2nd year Open pit
• Highland Valley Copper
• 3rd year Underground
• Myra Falls, Quinsam Coal
• 4th year Self-organized
• Chile, China, Poland, Brazil

4
Recruitment Connections

• Information sessions
• Offer free food but get more creative than
  pizza!
• Send senior, technical employees
• Student-Industry dinners
• Great extended networking opportunity
• Career fairs
• Send senior, technical employees
• Industry Advisory Committee
• Help mold students to your needs

5
Opportunities

• Scholarships
• Simple annual monetary contribution
• Holistic Student sponsorship through financial
  assistance and variety of technical work-terms
  (preferred)
• Work terms
• Extended job interview
• Many students sign full-time contracts with
  company theyve worked for as a student
• Word of mouth is best advertising for recruitment!

6
National Recruitment Survey
7
Background

• Began locally within UBC department
• For industry advisory committee meeting
• Informal qualitative
• Asked to expand upon, for meeting with Teck
  Cominco
• Survey Inspired by Mining Games hosting
• Annual survey Toronto will continue at next
  years MG
• Student-organized initiative
• Distributed through MG Captains to respective
  university departments
• Unique and Important
• No previous nation-wide student survey for mining
  engineers
• Feedback from 20 of Canadas mining engineering
  students

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Who Was Surveyed
9
Who Was Surveyed
Age
10
Who Was Surveyed
11
Results Work Sought
Highlight Need more hands-on summer and
EIT roles
12
Results Location and Accommodation

• Highlights Accommodation especially appealing
  to summer students
• Camp jobs much preferred to small
  community location

13
Results Compensation
Co-op / Internship Fee Reimbursement Evenly
Distributed Factor
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Results Compensation
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Results Salary
Highlights Students speak to each other, and
past graduates Aware of international
salaries available (eg. Australia)
16
Results Corporate-Culture
Highlights Safety 1 Engineer-in-Trainin
g program 2 Responsible employer
(environmental social) 3
17
Results Schedules
Highlights Strong preference for 4 day 3 day
or even-time FIFO Consistent trend across
all universities except Laurentian
18
Results Comments Received on Survey
(Other important factors that influence
employment decisions)

• Allowing young engineer to shape training program
• Good Mentorship
• Professional development Room to move
• Gender equality
• Company that fosters work-life balance (eg.
  allows flexibility, encourages personal health
  and wellbeing)
• Personable casual interviewing (not Behaviour
  Based)
• Punctual, respectful HR contact with future
  supervisor when applying

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Conclusions and Key Points

• Mining industry beginning to face extended period
  of HR challenges
• Engage with universities nation-wide, in variety
  of ways
• Not just providing a job or a scholarship
• Students seeking variety of roles within industry
• More hands-on roles needed
• Prefer fly-in/fly-out over small communities more
  than 21
• Internationally competitive salaries (Mining is
  global business)
• Fair overtime compensation (40-hour work-weeks
  are rare)
• Assistance for continuing education (invest in
  employees)
• Corporate-culture factors (safe, responsible
  employer with EIT program)
• Schedules and benefits that encourage better
  work-life balance

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ContactMichael Fullermikef13_at_interchange.ubc.
ca