Somewhere in the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in a stretch of country where the ground holds some of the richest copper and cobalt deposits on earth, Erick Banza has never stopped studying. And he has never stopped dreaming either.
As a recent Milpark Education graduate with a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Administration (PGDPA), he wanted to build on his work as a maintenance planner on one of the DRC’s major copper and cobalt mines, where he decides what needs to be fixed, by whom, and when.
Where his journey started
It began in a primary school classroom in the DRC, with a boy who was, in his own words, “good with numbers.”
He chose early. In high school, Erick specialised in industrial electronics, added technical certifications, then went to work as an instrument technician in the mining sector with his hands on the equipment. Then he left home to chase a dream.
Erick travelled to South Africa to study, earned a National Diploma followed by a Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering. After that, he went back to work at Kamoto Copper Company SA, a major copper and cobalt operation.
This is where he started to work with crushers, conveyors, haul trucks, and the processing plant. The perfect place to apply what he had learned. And as he moved up the ranks, his role changed from doing the maintenance to managing it. He decides what gets fixed, when, and by whom.
But there was one problem. The job wasn’t the one he’d prepared for, and there were gaps in his arsenal. People. Budgets. Suppliers. Contracts. Conflict, in an operation where disagreement is expensive. At this level, engineering had stopped being about machines.
He wanted to embark on further education, but this time he had an established job and a life in the DRC, and neither was going to wait two years while he sat in a lecture hall in another country.
So Erick decided to study with Milpark. He knew their online offering was built for exactly this, a postgraduate qualification he could earn without giving up the job, or the country, that needed him.
What Erick gained from studying Public Administration
Milpark’s online Postgraduate Diploma in Public Administration is built for public sector managers. People who run government departments, spend public money, and answer to citizens.
Erick works for a private mining company, in another country, keeping industrial equipment running. He still saw the overlap. “In my role, so many things link to public administration,” he says. “Maintenance planning combines engineering with people and financial management.”
Public administration is the study of how an institution plans, budgets, procures, employs people, and decides which competing priority gets the money. And Erick writes budgets from limited funds. He appoints contractors and holds them to their terms. He employs and manages people. He decides which of ten broken things gets fixed first, knowing the other nine will wait. It’s the same work, under a different name.
For someone who had been refining his expertise since he was 16, further study was the obvious next step. Studying online meant his location was no longer a barrier. He could keep the job that was teaching him what he needed to learn, while he learned it.
Explore: Milpark’s Postgraduate Diploma in Public Administration
Distance learning, from the DRC
Milpark’s immersive online approach meant Erick could work through virtual lectures and discussions online. And a WhatsApp group to connect with peers and lecturers. “Working with students from finance, politics and other fields was exciting,” he says. “I connected with people from diverse backgrounds, and everyone brought a unique perspective. We unpacked the course content together online, which really supported my learning.”
His expertise had been narrow and deliberate since he was 16, and these students came at the same problems from angles he had never used. It wasn’t easy. “Balancing my pressurised full-time job with my online studies wasn’t always easy,” he says, “but Milpark made it possible and it really worked for me.”
Then he graduated, on a screen, in the DRC, with no hall to sit in and no stage to walk across. “I was so excited,” he says. “My fellow students and Milpark’s public administration lecturers understood how important that moment was, even though I was miles away in the DRC.” His family held a small celebration afterwards. “I felt proud, and my family were incredibly happy. It was a wonderful moment.”
Find out about Milpark’s Immersive Online approach
How Milpark changed him
What Milpark gave Erick shows up in two places. In how he handles people, and in how he sees his own country.
He manages the same contractors, suppliers, and staff he always did, but he handles them differently now. “Through my PGDPA, I’m able to manage people more effectively than I used to, especially when it comes to conflict management, which is common in any large operation,” he says. And studying how one country runs its institutions changed the way he sees his own. “I learned what South Africa is doing well and was inspired to think about what could be applied in the DRC to improve our socioeconomic conditions.”
Where Erick goes from here
Erick has come a long way from that classroom, and he’s already enrolled for a Master of Engineering focused on maintenance management and economics. After that he wants an MBA and then a PhD. He is weighing up the maintenance economy as a future field, while dreaming about where he could go from here. “Perhaps in the future I will work in the public sector or in academia. You never know,” he says.
“For me, studying further is about building my future career,” he says. “Continuous learning is essential. As people progress in the workplace, they need to keep learning and preparing themselves to move forward.”
If you’re standing where Erick stood, with an affinity for the technical work and an appetite for higher positions, his advice is simple.
“You will always need to upgrade your skills so you can continue moving forward and upward. So why not start now.”
He started from a mine in the DRC. Wherever you’re starting from, we’ll meet you there.
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