A group of apprentices from seven Papuan tribes have been invited to undertake mining training from Nemangkawi Mining Institute (IPN) in Timika regency, Papua.
Students have the chance to engage in much practical activity such as driving trucks or using machines.
“They practice vehicle and equipment operation before they begin on projects,” IPN director Izak
Sayuri said.
Established in 2003, the institute became the center of training for Papuans as skilled mine workers, especially those from seven tribes around PT Freeport Indonesia’s mining concessions.
So far, Izak said, the institute had trained about 3,000 people, some 1,600 of whom had been working as full-time workers at PT Freeport.
Izak said there were three training groups: indigenous Papuans from the seven tribes living near
the company’s mining sites, indigenous Papuans from other tribes and non-Papuans born and raised in Papua.
The seven tribes include Amungme, Kamoro, Dani, Moni, Ekari, Mee and Nduga.
The training was given to them as part of the company’s program to help empower locals.
“They are all exempt from training fees,” Izak added.
Other privileges include supplementing the exam requirement with six-month’s of special training before they are sent to join the main training program.
“In other words, there is no way these participants can be declared to have failed the normative test because the six-month special training provides them with the needed skills,” said Hermina Kosay, an instructor at IPN tasked with supervising participants from the
seven tribes.
Covering a 6-hectare plot, IPN comes with working facilities, an underground mining and heavy equipment simulators, mining vehicles and other facilities normally used at a mining site.
“All equipment pieces used in PT Freeport mine fields can be found here,” Hermina said.
Since 2006, the institute has also been in cooperation with the state-run polytechnic college in Semarang, Central Java, to offer a D-3 program in business administration.
The three-year program also includes three to four months of off-site training and eight months of on-site training.
Participants mostly said they joined the program because it was provided free of charge and in the hope they would be employed at Freeport upon completion.
“I studied at the Jayapura Science Technology University [USTJ] but later decided to join IPN,” said Marice Mirino of the Kamoro tribe, currently participating in on-site training with the D-3 business administration.
He said he planned to continue his studies to undergraduate level.
Other programs offered by IPN include Masters of Business Administration (MBA) held in cooperation with the Bandung Institute of Technology, West Java, and programs designed to improve the skills of Freeport’s employees.