Vale trains foreigners in Brazil operations

Young Mozambicans professionals of Vale will conclude in September a course of six months in Brazil in the area of training of drivers, for locomotives. The training includes practical lessons on Estrada de Ferro Vitória a Minas (EFVM), of Vale, whose network is in the Southeast. When they complete the course, the young people will return to Mozambique qualified to participate in the operation of the Nacala Corridor, formed by 566.69 miles railroad and a port, both in the final stages of construction. The prediction is that the first train loaded with coal produced by Vale in Mozambican mines Moatize, in Tete, Northwest of the country, go through the Nacala Corridor until the end of 2014.

The experience of young Mozambicans in the EFVM is part of a program implemented by Vale since 2010 for training, in Brazil, of apprentices of Mozambique and Malaysia, where the company will inaugurate by the end of the year a distribution centre of iron ore. Since 2010, 346 apprentices Mozambicans and Malaysians were trained in Vale’s operations in Brazil. 285 were Mozambicans and 61 Malaysians. The training included courses in the areas of training of drivers, operating mines, mine equipment maintenance and port operation and maintenance.

There are currently 81 Mozambican trainees of Vale in Brazil, 50 of which being trained as drivers in towns of Minas Gerais and in Vitória, Espírito Santo, where Vale has the Tubarão complex, one of the main ports for export of iron ore in the country. The remaining 31 trainees participate in courses in the port area in Victoria. The courses extend over periods of three to eight months and, after completion of the training, the young people return to the country of origin.

From September, 60 more Mozambicans will disembark in Vitoria to participate in trainings. Formed in the equivalent to the high school in Brazil, they are recruited by Vale, undergo theoretical programs in Mozambique and then face the practical part in Brazil.

Paula Eller, Vale’s Director of human resources for Africa and Asia, said that the decision to send the trainees to Brazil leaned on the fact the company has mature operations in the Brazilian market, of railroad and port. In Mozambique, the Moatize mine operations have not yet reached full capacity and the Nacala Corridor, with a capacity of 18 million tons of coal a year, did not start to operate. Today the coal transport is done via the Sena Line, network that does not belong to the Valley. In Malaysia, the center of distribution of iron ore of Teluk Rubiah should begin work by the end of 2014.

We give the learners the opportunity to train in mature operations and running on full capacity, said Paula. And added: He [the trainee] experience technical experience, but also issues of safety, health and environment that are important to us. She said that each time there will be less need, from a technical point of view, to take trainees from Mozambique to Brazil once the trained professionals replicate the knowledge acquired to other colleagues at their return.

Train in Brazil off-road truck operators who work in the mines of Moatize is not necessary today. This occurred at the beginning of the program, but today it is done in Mozambique. Something similar occurred in Malaysia. A first group of Malaysians was sent to Brazil in 2012. There was theoretical course in Malaysia and hands-on training in Brazil of 61 Malaysian professionals trained in the operation and maintenance of Harbour. But two other classes, in 2013 and in 2014, did the whole course (theoretical and practical) in Malaysia. This shows that the action is sustainable because we invest [in training] and knowledge to remain, if perpetuated.

Between 2012 and 2014, Vale has invested $ 15,613,846.50 in labor training in Mozambique, which includes trainees and other training programs. Valley also has programs in logistics in Brazil for Mozambican senior professionals.