The Northern Centre for Advanced Technology Inc. (NORCAT) has launched its new Global Centre of Excellence in Training and Development to provide services, programs and resources to reduce injuries and enhance productivity in the workplace.
The centre will include a mobile mining equipment training simulator to compliment NORCAT's existing in-person and on-line training programs.
“Our new initiatives will serve each of our priority areas, pushing NORCAT to a new level of excellence and capability,” said NORCAT CEO Don Duval in a release. “We have listened to and engaged our customers and key stakeholders in this process and are very happy with our future outlook.”
To build on its mining safety resources, NORCAT will also expand its underground training centre – an operating mine that is used for hands-on training and development for workers in the industry.
NORCAT has partnered with Laurentian University's Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health (CROSH) for the new training centre.
“We need to understand what works, what doesn’t and determine ways to better engage people so training is relevant and has value,” said Tammy Eger, director of CROSH, in a release. “We understand in a basic sense that people learn differently, but it will take a sophisticated initiative to understand engagement and segmentation better.”
Sudbury's largest mining companies – Vale, Glencore and KGHM – have also partnered with NORCAT for the project.
“This brings NORCAT to a whole new level of excellence to serve the Canadian mining industry by ensuring workers are effectively trained to work as safely as possible,” said Kelly Strong, Vale's vice-president of Ontario operations, in a release.