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| Coal miner: As coal mining evolves past heavy labor and pickaxes, more recent college graduates, like Joshua Hoffman, are
drawn to it as a smart career choice. Courtesy of Joshua Hoffman |
College graduates heading to careers in ... the coal mines
With many miners approaching retirement, the industry is trying to attract young talent.
from the October 31, 2007 edition
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The coal industry is already trying to lure young talent like Patterson and Mr. Oldham. Both have received full scholarships from various mining company foundations. Summer mining internships that pay between $15 to $20 an hour, often with time and a half overtime rates, cover all of their incidental expenses during the school year. Following graduation, starting salaries for mining engineers range from the mid-$40,000s to $60,000.
But it's not just the high salaries that attract Oldham. "I still get excited every time I go underground," he says.
The rising interest among students isn't limited to West Virginia.
At UMR the number of students in the department of mining engineering nearly tripled from 52 in 2001 to 142 in 2007. A survey by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration indicated a 14 percent increase in students enrolled in undergraduate mining programs across the country between 2006 and 2007.
"Mining is not easy work, but it's not as backbreaking as it once was," says Mr. Hamilton of the West Virginia Coal Association.
Only 10 to 15 percent of miners do the "day in and day out tough work," like shoveling coal that falls off conveyor belts or moving heavy machinery at any given coal-mining site, estimates R. Larry Grayson, chair in mining engineering at Penn State. Although most college students will not have to work as laborers, except for perhaps a brief orientation period, Bryan Lummus, personnel recruitment and development coordinator for Alliance Coal, headquartered in Lexington, Ky., says that despite this, not every student is chomping at the bit to get into the coal business. Oftentimes college students avoid mining because of the stereotype that it's blue collar. "Students still see the coal miner as carrying a pickax and shovel and crawling on their hands and knees in a dirty environment," says Mr. Lummus.
In reality, he says, coal mining has become increasingly technical, and students with advanced-engineering degrees will be in high demand. Additionally, he argues that mines are relatively comfortable places to work. For example, workers can stand up in most mines, which are also sometimes equipped with Internet access.
"I guarantee you that if you ever get a chance to visit a salt mine, [for example], you'd come out of there raving what a great workplace it was," says Bise.
Still, as industries like coal mining are prone to boom and bust cycles, the market does not worry many mining-engineering majors. "Even if they stopped coal mining in the US, there's metal and nonmetal quarries, and all kinds of jobs mining engineers could go for," says Vance Rumbaugh, a senior mining-engineering major at Penn State.
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