Por Redaccion 
Eight major industrial and mining companies with a strong presence in Andalusia, Acerinox, Atlantic Copper, Concreto, Timonel, Llave, Sandfire’s Tap, Maquinilla, and Takahata shared the best practices implemented in their firms at an event organized at the headquarters of the Ministry of Industry, Energy, and Mines as part of the program of events held during the first week of women in the Andalusian industrial and mining sector.
The Minister of Industry, Energy, and Mines, Jorge Paradela, opened this meeting highlighting the important role played by large companies in «setting the path» on important issues such as increasing women in the industrial and mining sectors. «Frontline companies have great power in shaping new standards for governance, in areas of the environment, social responsibility, and of course, gender equality.»
He emphasized the need to share «cases of companies that are 100% committed to increasing the presence of women in the industry and mining sector,» because, even though, even though, even though «To move forward, much is still to be done». Currently, there is a female presence of 26% in the industrial sector, up from 19% five years ago. «By promoting the role of women and gender equality policies, leading companies set the path,» stated Jorge Paradela.
In this context, he elaborated on the need to analyze «how society as a whole is influenced from early ages and how we reverse the fact that scientific high school is the only one without a majority of female students, that higher-level vocational training has only 12% girls, and 4% when it comes to technical degrees.»
Family photo of the participants in the meeting that closed the first week of women in the industrial and mining sector in Andalusia.
Throughout the presentations of the different participating companies, common measures included awareness-building, communicating to society that the industry and mining sectors are modern today, evolving with the most advanced technologies, and where the need for physical strength is no longer as critical, in an environment where men and women can work on equal terms. They also emphasized the importance of implementing internal awareness actions through various training initiatives, such as flexible work arrangements, job sharing, continuous workday programs, and professional development programs that focus, for example, on «equal merits have female preferences,» management training, and mentoring programs.
Rosa Ruiz Gómez and Gema Moray, Heads of Sustainability and Fusion Sections at Acerinox, respectively shared the company’s goal of reaching 15% female representation in the workforce by the year 2030. «Creating awareness within the factory is not only important but necessary to go back to the source, so that girls consider pursuing STEM careers or technical training courses.» They mentioned campaigns to visit high schools to explain job opportunities and showcase the presence of women in various departments of the factory.
In turn, Rocío Aznar, Compensation and Benefits Supervisor at Atlantic Copper, emphasized the importance of having «equal opportunities». In their company, female representation is at 19%, with 45% in management committees, 33% in intermediate roles, and a challenge of having women in 10% of operational roles. To improve these figures, they implement various measures to attract female talent, such as having 50% of student interns being female and showcasing successful female employees in educational institutions to demonstrate the attractiveness of the sector.
From Concreto, their HR Manager, Rocío López, highlighted that they were «the first mining company in Spain to approve an equality plan in 2018, which included 79 measures,» and they are incorporating new measures related to the future of the company, not only to attract talent but also to provide opportunities for them to progress and be represented at all levels. Currently, they have 18% female representation, which serves as a foundation for improvement, with 43% of them working in technical and operational areas.
Representatives of eight major industrial and mining companies, with a strong presence in Andalusia, including Acerinox, Atlantic Copper, Cobre Las Cruces, Cox, Keyter, Sandfire Matsa, Moeve, and Takahata.
From Timonel Engineering, Roser Castelló, the group’s Director of Inclusion and Equality, emphasized that only around 28% of women pursue STEM studies. «This, when it’s already challenging to incorporate women into technical roles, makes it even more difficult to attract, retain, and promote female talent in industrial and technological companies.» For this reason, they have specific programs aimed at school stages, taking 4th ESO and high school students to their facilities for three days to inspire them in STEM and how engineering can help improve society. They also run mentoring programs with universities and other entities to bring students closer to «role models.»
José María Raya, CEO of Teclista Group, stressed the importance of changing culture, as «more than strategy, it’s what permeates the daily life of the company.» He shared how female workforce has increased by 126% in the past three years, with almost 200 out of 800 employees being women; they have reached 25%, and are proud that 38% of middle management and management staff are women.
Nuria Fresh, HR Director at Sandfire’s Tap, emphasized the need to «give visibility to women in the sector, especially in traditional male roles. We want to show that mining is for women, and underline the importance of girls and young people having female role models in the sector.» She also mentioned that direct employment in the company exceeds 22%, surpassing the 9.1% mark in the national mining sector. This indicates that women are interested in working in the mining sector.
José Alfonso Martínez Cueto, HR Director at Maquinilla (formerly Cepsa), highlighted the need to promote a «cultural transformation of the DNA, so that inclusion, equality, and diversity policies are internalized throughout the company; it goes beyond just policies,» he mentioned. He emphasized the «ambition» to increase female representation. «We have more engineers than field operators,» an area where they are making an effort.
Laura Molina, Director of Administration and Finance at Takahata, emphasized their Carolina plant, which started in 2019 and has 65 employees, with almost 70% being women at all levels. In their company, they aim to foster a culture where employees know they are valued for their talent and performance. This is achieved through continuous training plans, internal promotion tailored to needs, and personalized training updates, among other measures.