Researchers from the UQ Learning Lab and partners have published "Passion, style, and smarts": industry perspectives on supervisor competencies in the mining industry in the Journal of Workplace Learning (published 30 October 2025). Authored by Dr Stephanie MacMahon, Dr Brooklyn Corbett, Professor Maureen Hassall, Libby Humphries, Professor Annemaree Carroll and Rodo De Boer, the study is part of the Lab's What Good Looks Like project, which works with the resources sector to build a shared, evidence-informed understanding of quality learning and training.
Frontline supervisors play a pivotal role in safe production, yet the industry is navigating high turnover and a workforce of widely varying experience, making it more important than ever to understand what good supervision actually involves. Drawing on the lived experience of supervisors and frontline workers, the research used a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, combining surveys (n = 28) and semi-structured interviews (n = 83) across three Australian mine sites.
The findings illustrate the breadth and depth of contemporary supervisory responsibilities, and profile the competencies supervisors need, providing a clear basis for designing purposeful, fit-for-context training and learning that reflects the real demands of the role.
The paper builds on the project's earlier article, 'What Good Looks Like': Building a Shared Understanding of Quality Training and Learning in the Mining Industry, published in Vocations and Learning (2024).
