A new professional development course from UQ’s Sustainable Minerals Institute has been designed to support site and corporate line managers in the resources sector.
SMI’s Governance and Leadership program leader Susan Johnston said the Governance for Mining and Resources Leaders course fills a crucial gap for people who already ‘know mining’ but need to manage increasingly complex environmental, health, safety and social performance requirements and expectations.
“Until now, no course has really brought together what line leaders need to know about governance of these areas,” she said.
"Resources leaders often come to their positions with excellent technical and disciplinary know-how, but less experience in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) fields, yet they still have accountabilities in these areas.
“If we expect leaders to lead in ESG, we need to skill them to do so."
On completion of the course, which opens in June, people will have the capability, approaches and tools to deal with even the most daunting governance challenges.
Ms Johnston said that the expert-run course covers much more than legislation.
“We will discuss voluntary obligations, and societal and stakeholder expectations; and in the case studies, what went wrong from a governance perspective, and what could have been done better.
“Often a company could have all their compliance ‘boxes ticked’ but still find themselves at odds with stakeholders, the local community, the media – these extra expectations are becoming more important, and they can be more challenging than legislative demands,” she said.
The course is initially tailored for site and corporate line managers in Queensland contexts. Subsequent courses will be designed for other jurisdictions.
The course builds on consultation with and feedback from an industry reference group.
“The industry reference group gave us excellent guidance about the level required, topics to cover, and executive needs,” said Ms Shona Stevens, convenor of the course and manager of Environmental Leadership and Performance at SMI.
Initially online, the 10-week course integrates online interactive workshops, case studies, peer-learning and discussions, scenarios and an assessment task.
“We believe the managers who come out of this course will have confidence to take their governance thinking to the next level. It will not only support improving on-site performance but support improving industry’s reputation,” Ms Stevens said.
Media: Gillian Ievers, g.ievers@uq.edu.au, 0438 121 757
