Armenian economy needs mining
The economic development of the past years in Armenia has been mostly due to the mining industry as during the past five years the growth in this industry was almost doubled.
Generally in Armenia the education system does not supply the economy with professionals, and companies complain that universities are unable to supply the industry with specialists as being a graduate does not mean to be a good employee. What is the situation in the mining industry? The number of graduates from the State University geo-mining department is at the same level now as it was during the Soviet time (50-60 graduates annually).
Hovhannes Guyumjyan, professor of the mining and geology faculties of Yerevan State University, says that even though the number of graduates has not changed, the quality has changed significantly. “In the past geologists were highly qualified. They used to become specialists in the university, before graduation. The study period was 5 years, and during that time they were being sent to different parts of the Soviet Union for internship. Such internships helped them to get hands-on skills to support their education. This helped them absorb the lectures better. Now it seems to them I am speaking Chinese as they do not understand me well. Now it is expensive to go to the field for practice, and many of them who are able to do it, they can go there for 15 days only, which is not enough,” says professor Guyumjyan. The professor believes one of the main obstacles for students to study is the difficult to find jobs. In the past graduates used to find job placement easily, however, now mining companies in Armenia are foreign companies, and their criteria for hiring are different. “They have their specialists and work with different methods, and our graduates do not know those methods. Their experts rely on analysis and numbers only but our people explore ores, examine and do other related field work – the mentalities are different. However, there are opportunities for students, and we are not hopeless,” says the professor.
There are only a few companies in Armenia that support specialists grow from their student seats. GeoTeam company is one of those few as they support 12 students from Amulsar stakeholder communities (Gorayk, Saravan and Gndevaz) to become professionals in mining engineering. Most of these students also do internship at the company.
“I am a student of the fifth grade of geo-mining faculty. It has been 3-4 years since I started working for this company; I started as a general labor employee, and now I am a geologist assistant. After graduating I am planning to become a geologist as well,” says Mkrtich Karapetyan from Gorayk.
He says the company location is close to his village, and if the company stays there, he will stay and continue working too. “I’m not going to leave my family and leave the village. I am going to stay and work here. I am a village boy, and I like working in the mountains.”
Professor Guyumjyan thinks that Armenia is small and has a lot of mines, however, the country should invest in production, “Armenia is the oldest metal mining mountainous country in the world. The first metal, copper was got here 10,000 years ago. During the Soviet time it used to be a leading mining industry, and now Armenia needs mining as well. Mines should be operated, but it should be done in a right way.”
Roman Hovhannisyan from Saravan community is a dental technician but has decided to change his profession due to financial issues. Now he is a second course student of geology faculty at the State University, and also is a part-time employee for GeoTeam, “By choosing this profession I hope that in the future I will have a good job. I have good expectations; let’s see what is happening in this big world.”
Eduard Arshakyan of Gndevaz community is a first course student of the mine exploration department of Yerevan Architecture University. He is going to become a mining engineer. “I love this job, and that is the reason why I chose this direction, and I hope to work for Amulsar mine in the future. My profession is one of the most demanded ones now, and even if the support of the company did not exist, I would still choose this profession,” says Eduard.
Nara Ghazaryan, GeoTeam’s social development project manager, says that company attaches importance to using the local resources in their social projects. From this point of view for the company it is important to support mining education in the communities. Due to GeoTeam’s support 12 students from the communities adjacent to Amulsar mine not only get education but also have the opportunity to work for the company’s modern mine exploration projects to get experience.
“When the mine starts operating, we are planning to open more jobs in the communities surrounding Amulsar. Education, from this point of view, is an important component of social responsibility for the Lydian and GeoTeam,” says N. Ghazaryan.
Garik Karapetyan from Gorayk, a student of the State University faculty of geology and mining, works for the mentioned company too. He says that if that job did not exist, he would have to leave from the country and go to Russia. In answer to our question whether there is no other job opportunity he said, “Aren’t you from this country? I have another higher education degree too; I’m an economist. How can I survive for 50-60,000 drams? I have two children. How would I take care of them?”
By G. Khachatryan
