THE Resources Challenge, an initiative aimed at teaching school kids coding and automation skills for jobs in the mining sector, was signed this week and will be implemented in schools in the Pilbara this term.
Year 5 and 6 students in 26 primary schools in the region as well as students at Karratha Senior High School and the Port Hedland School of the Air will take part in the program, which has been funded and developed through the Pilbara Collaboration Charter.
Signatories to the charter consist of WA Premier Mark McGowan, CME and its members BHP, Chevron Australia, CITIC Pacific Mining, Fortescue Metals Group, Rio Tinto Iron Ore, Roy Hill, Woodside and Yara Pilbara.
Chamber of Minerals and Energy of WA chief executive Paul Everingham said that coding and automation skills will be taught via robots representing autonomous haul trucks, drills and underwater vehicles.
Drone piloting will also be taught using maps that represent scenarios that are faced by the State’s resources sector.
“Industry representatives will assist teaching the concepts and share their career journeys through short online videos set in the challenges,” Mr Everingham said.
An important part of the program is training teachers to have the skills to guide the pupils in these vital areas.
Called The Resources Challenges: Automation, it sets the region up to provide mines with the skilled staff they need in an increasingly automated process.
