If the name alone wasn’t enough to get me interested, the concept behind Runge’s new “Smartminer” online training program certainly had me intrigued. Here's my thoughts and review of the Smartminer training program.
An Australian-based mining consultancy company, Runge were best known to me for their mining specific software and training programs. They’ve now developed the “Smartminer” online training course as a new way of presenting an “overview” type course about the mining industry for non-mining people.
The mining industry is much more than just us operators, engineers and managers. Our corporate offices and support services are full of people without mining backgrounds, but who need to work with and for mining operations, and understand what is going on at the mines. People like accountants, finance, human resources, environmental managers, training managers, and even safety personnel. These people come to our industry from a range of different backgrounds, and it is important they can get an overview of the mining industry, how mining works, and what some of the key terminology is.
The Smartminer online training course aims to educate people who work for mining companies or in the mining industry about the industry itself, and its specific challenges.
What is Smartminer?
To quote Runge’s own brochure which puts things in slightly more marketing speak than the way I’ve just described it:
“Smartminer is a blended learning offering which has been developed for professionals and technical staff in the mining industry as well as for staff on the periphery or new to mining. It provides a flexible and new approach to employee training. Smartminer facilitates the delivery of training solutions and benefits regardless of where employees are located and what timezone they are in. Smartminer will upskill your workforce - quickly and easily. Smartminer provides training in productivity tools and professional development across many general and technical streams for all your staff when you need it and where you need it without large investments of time or money.”
The training course has nine modules, all with catchy names:
- Overview
- Form it
- Quantify it
- Plan it
- Extract it
- Convert it
- Move it
- Sell it
- Imagine it
Each module takes the student through a different stage in the mining life cycle, explaining how minerals are first formed and deposited, through how we work out whether or not to mine them, to how we mine, process and sell the resulting product. There’s even an optional assessment at the end which you can attempt and if you pass you get a certificate to prove you’ve completed the course! Nice one for the resume.
Runge say it will take around 4 to 6 hours to complete the course, but that you can pause and come back at any time. Both coal and metals mining are covered, as well as all different types of underground and open pit mining methods.
My Review of Smartminer
I recently tried some of the modules online, to see what it was like to learn the basics of the mining industry via online learning. I found the subject material to be presented quite well, and to be pitched at an appropriate level for people new to the industry. Some good images and diagrams are used to demonstrate the subject material, and the online learning method is easy to follow by simply clicking and following the links.
Click on the screenshots below to see the full images.
I haven’t had much experience with taking online training courses before, but I think the online delivery method is quite suitable to this type of content, where a person is trying to get their head around particular types of information, and may need to reread the concepts a few times to fully understand.
The course is available for anyone in the public to sign up for via the website. (I do think perhaps some of our politicians should take the course to get a better understanding of our industry and the benefits it brings to the economy and prosperity of many countries around the world!)
The plan is for this Smartminer online course to be the first introductory course which leads on to more detailed and in depth modules about specific types and aspects of the mining industry. It will be interesting to see how it develops over time.
So I think the idea of the online introductory course is a good one – the online nature makes it more accessible to people coming in to our industry, and the content seems to be pitched at the right level to be easy to understand, and yet valuable to the student. Nice initiative for the industry! Click here to find out more about Smartminer.
This is the first website or product review that we’ve done on MiningMan.com – I’d love to know whether you, our readers, are interested in reading these types of personal reviews about websites, products and events related to mining. Should we continue on with these types of reviews every now and then, or stick with our usual advice and tips articles??
Thanks for your feedback!
- Jamie
- Jamie Ross
Mining Man - Practical Safety, Leadership and Productivity Ideas for the Mining Industry
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