“This program is helping us identify the right position for each employee, and better develop and design our teams.”
– Rodrigo Gomes (Senior Manager, Maintenance & Process, Paracatu)
Maintenance technicians keep our trucks running, mills turning, and drills blasting. They play a critical role in meeting our production and cost targets, and at Paracatu, they’re in high demand.
As Marcos Cangussú (Human Resources Director, Paracatu) explains, “The economy in Brazil has grown rapidly over the past ten years, and as it grew, we began producing more and more people with university degrees. Regrettably, we also started producing fewer and fewer qualified tradespeople – like maintenance technicians.”
The competition for technical talent in Brazil is fierce. Compounding this issue is an acute lack of local training facilities that can help our technicians upgrade their skills.
To help tackle this challenge, our operation at Paracatu partnered with Pronatec (a government initiative) and Senai (a training provider), to access resources and training specifically for technicians.
“First we evaluated our maintenance teams,” explains Marcos. “We interviewed and assessed more than 400 employees. From there, we were able to identify our critical skill gaps.”
“These results gave us a clear picture of our maintenance department and what kinds of training we needed to invest in. Since then, we have mapped out 60 different potential training modules, translating into more than 110,000 hours of training over the next three years.”
While some of the modules are more generic (for example, Advanced Mechanical Maintenance), others are more specialized, including: metrology (the science of measurement), welding, lubrication, and a module dedicated to fostering a greater understanding of Caterpillar-specific literature.
“The program has been extremely well-received,” add Marcos. “It is an investment in our people and their careers, and reinforces our commitment to our value of putting people first, and continuous improvement.”
Maintenance Technician training sessions at Paracatu
Pictured from left to right: Juscelio Pereira (Technician, Electrical II), Danilo Aparecido (Operator, Electronics Maintainer), Deliones dos Santos (Technician, Electrical II)
Pictured above: Jovino Silva (Maintenance Supervisor) and Flávia Pires (HR Analyst), with representatives from Senai
Pictured from left to right: Cleison Rodrigues (Technician, Instrumentation), José Laerte de Campos (Technician, Electrical II), and Roberto Barbosa (Technician, Electrical II)
