Mining equipment and engineering giant, Sandvik Mining & Construction Ltd. last week joined several companies in a career fair at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

The fair was organised by the College of Engineering of the Kumasi-based university and offered companies the opportunity to showcase their unique skillset in their area of operation and the opportunities thereof.

Sandvik Mining (Ghana) Ltd. and other corporate organisations in the country pitched camp for days at the College’s premises and educated students on what skills they need to have in order to access job opportunities in their respective companies.

In a speech read on his behalf, Sandvik’s Vice-President and Area Sales Manager, West Africa, Mr. Nuhu Salifu, said the company was excited by the opportunity to participate in the event because it resonated with their mantra, “at Sandvik, people are our priority.”

Mr. Samuel Brewu, HR & Administration Manager of the Sales Area, who read the speech, traced the history of the company to its founding by Göran Fredrik Göransson some 150 years ago in Sandviken, Sweden.

He said Goran had in mind an organization that would, through innovation and the synergies of its workforce provide top-notch engineering solutions everywhere and in every field of endeavor and it has done exactly that.

In the four Business Areas of Sandvik, Mr. Salifu said the company has grown to become “a world leader in tools for metal cutting, equipment for the mining and construction industries, stainless materials, special alloys, metallic and ceramic resistance materials as well as process systems.”

Touching on the company’s operations locally, he said, Sandvik, has been operating in Ghana for close to 20 years now and has served with diligence, the needs of the mining and construction industry within the West Africa sub-region.

Currently, Sandvik in West Africa (which includes entities in Nigeria and Mali) has over 150 workers, including attachment trainees and persons on national service spread across various company and customer sites.

Sandvik’s quest to remain the mining solution of choice, he told the gathering, has driven a huge investment into an ultra-modern operational service that, with time could become a key training hub for the development of technical skills in the sub-region.

Sandvik highlighted its core values of Customer Focus, Innovation, Fair play and Passion to Win. These, according to the Company inspire its success and ignite their passion to connect with their stakeholders.

Sandvik’s commitment to ‘zero harm’, also ensures that each employee goes home with no injury arising out of the work they do; making the Company a worker and environment-friendly one.

Touting its credentials on Corporate Social Responsibility, Sandvik indicated the fact that in the last eight years, the Company has spent a total of USD 752,000 on activities that benefit communities within and outside its areas of operation, notable amongst them being the erstwhile apprenticeship training programme ran with the University of Mines & Technology and other mining Companies.

Commenting on why Sandvik participated in the career fair, Sandvik Area Sales Manager said, ‘’About two (2) years ago, in Australia, a team of four Sandvik Engineers were inducted into the International Mining Technology Hall of Fame for inventing the Sandvik AutoMine. Explaining how it all began, Riku Pulli, Vice President for Mining Automation in Sandvik and one of the four said, ‘In 1998 and 1999 we realised that bits and pieces of technology had advanced enough to get an exciting product out to the market.  We pieced together the puzzle and started integrating systems. That was the birth of AutoMine.’’

In this same vein, Sandvik West Africa believes that knowledge and skills abound at KNUST to ‘’piece puzzles together’’ and generate something big. Such big things only happen when young ones are encouraged and provided opportunities to explore and exploit. Basically, we are here to inspire you and to say: Indeed, you can!’’

Sandvik’s delegation to the Fair included some alumni of KNUST who hold various managerial and other senior positions in the organisation.

They included, George Antwi – Business Line Manager, Underground Load & Haul and Robert Baffour-Awuah – Workshop, Rebuilds and Warranty Manager who answered questions from students and made contributions at the plenary sessions and in the company stands before and after the plenary.