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NSC Home Page > EUAS Contents > Diversity of opportunities
INDUSTRY
Diversity of opportunities
A number of references have already been made to the range of topics presented by the industry. Without any doubt these greatly exceed those offered by any other industry or sector. The diversity has three important perspectives:
a) The industry occupies rural, urban and marine situations which are so widely distributed that no educational establishment is likely to be more than about twenty miles distant from an operating unit.
b) The spectrum of subjects available for study is considerable.
c) The opportunities to work in a range of occupations and locations cannot be matched by any other industry.The geographical spread is summarised elsewhere in this report and is also available in several BGS, ODPM, planning trade association publication sand trade directories.
The scope of subjects for study is covered in the Education Section of this report and in Appendices 7-14 and 18. It is worth reiterating that it is difficult to identify a subject area where the industry cannot readily contribute. The quarrying industry has even been used by pupils studying music and foreign languages. The industry therefore literally constitutes 'Britain's best outdoor classroom'. To those who may find this concept problematic, one only has to point to the following broad areas and activities within the industry:
a) Mineral exploration, resource evaluation.
b) Site selection, environmental impact assessment.
c) Planning, decision-making, democratic processes.
d) Extraction, processing, distribution.
e) Secondary processing to finished products, end-uses.
f) Recycling and processing by-products of other industries.
g) Waste management, water management, land restoration/after-care.
h) Managing - personnel, finance, equipment, data, public relations, health and safety, resources, commercial relations, estates (before, during and after mineral extraction); marketing.Direct and Indirect Employment
This same variety of facets is reflected in the range of employment opportunities, both within the operating quarries and indirectly. The balance between direct and indirect employment is changing constantly; to a large degree this depends on the definition of 'direct' employment. Until the late 1990s, direct employment was measured as those people subject to the quarry safety legislation in force at the time. As a general rule, people working in a quarry or associated processing on the same site are classed as 'direct'. Production plants detached or fenced off from the quarry come under the Factory Acts for health and safety purposes. The statistics (e.g. in the Industry Fact File) are not very reliable in this respect.Examples of job in, or servicing the industry and contacts for training courses are listed in Appendix 17.
Historically, many of the more specialist or less frequently required functions are 'bought-in' from consultants or service firms, e.g. geologists, site investigators ecologists, corporate designers, archaeologists, landscape architects, planners, foresters. In contrast, people working regularly on a given site have usually been employed directly by the company, e.g. drillers, explosives supervisors/shotfirers, dumper/excavator drivers, weighbridge clerks, maintenance engineers, control room operators, quarry managers.
Until about ten years ago, most aggregates were delivered to customers in quarry company vehicles. Now, almost all materials are carried by outside contractors, e.g. local hauliers, owner drivers or specialist carriers (e.g. tankers for bulk powders), although very often their lorries are in quarry company colours. This trend of sourcing services outside the operating company also applies much more widely and at many sites includes all vehicles and material handling (apart from within the processing plant), blasting, and some secondary processing such as production of concrete and asphalt. This means that very many jobs are effectively now undertaken by indirect employees.
Although it is therefore sometimes difficult to find out about such positions, the need for example to comply with complicated health and safety requirements or environmental obligations has greatly broadened the range of occupations. For example probably more archaeologists are dependent upon the quarrying industry than any other source of funding. The industry is probably engaged in more tree planting than any other sector, apart from commercial forestry itself, so foresters and landscape specialists are involved. Agronomist advise on soil and crop management as part of after-care schemes. Elsewhere at least two falconers, a few teachers (at study centres) and occasionally registered bat and newt handlers work in quarrying. Systems analysts and data processors are needed in quarry face profiling for safety reasons, market tracking or financial control. The industry employs people skilled in almost every branch of engineering, including some of the less common specialisms, e.g. marine, explosives, hydraulics, chemical.