OKD Educates Miners Through Interactive Boards

STONAVA (9 February 2010) – The OKD Central Training Centre, where the company started to train miners and other employees, means literally a revolution in the mining company’s training system. Whereas not long ago, training courses were held on the premises of the individual mines or external trainers, and the main teaching materials were films recorded on video-tapes, OKD currently trains its employees in the new Central Training Centre on the Darkov Mine premises, which is equipped with interactive boards and computer terminals.

“It was a great step for both the miners and trainers, who were used to the video-recorder, black board and chalk. However, the innovation has quickly taken hold. After the first months of operation, we can say that thanks to the centralization, we have made the education process more efficient, and by means of state-of-the-art technology, we have significantly improved the training quality,” said Libor Dürrer, Deputy Chief Financial and Human Resources Officer, OKD.

For the mining and surface personnel of the individual mines of the Karviná coal district and their contractors, the Central Training Centre ensures the induction training and most of expert, qualification, retraining and specialist courses and training sessions, including periodical training sessions in the occupational health & safety area. With its total capacity of 298 training seats, it ranks among the largest ones in Northern Moravia. The Centre has 12  training rooms, out of which 3 training rooms with 70 seats are equipped with computers, which will be used for PC skills training and e-learning. Each  training room has its own interactive board.

The OKD Central Training Centre has its branch in the Paskov Mine. The branch capacity is 100 training seats in five training rooms, out of which one is a computer training room and one is provided with an interactive board.

OKD is owned by New World Resources (NWR), which also owns, apart from OKD, OKK Coking Plants and companies NWR KARBONIA and NWR Energy. In 2009, OKD employed 14,331 people (i.e. average employee count). According to the preliminary estimates, the average monthly salary of the miners amounted to approximately CZK 29,000 last year.

Vladislav Sobol, Spokesman, OKD, a.s.

Telephone:     596 262 293                          Mobile: 725 595 417

E-mail:            vladislav.sobol@okd.cz         Web: www.okd.cz