A centre providing training and job opportunities on Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel project has opened on St. Kilda Road, near the future Anzac Station.
Called “MetroHub”, the centre is a partnership between Yarra Partnership and Holmesglen Institute, based at the TAFE’s Southbank campus.
Approximately 7,000 jobs are expected to be created by the Metro Tunnel project, including tradespeople, crane operators and tunnel boring machine crews, and 800 apprentices, trainees and cadets.
The Victorian government has invested $6 billion in a package that will provide for 5,000 of those jobs. It also funds training at the MetroHub for 500 apprentices, trainees and cadets, in programs designed for those seeking careers in construction.
Industry and employment minister Ben Carroll, who visited MetroHub on Monday, said jobseekers will be able to register their interest in Metro Tunnel jobs both in person at the centre and online via Seek.
“MetroHub is an example of industry and education working together to link the right candidates to the right jobs, by opening up career pathways, construction industry training and workforce development opportunities,” Carroll said.
“The Metro Tunnel Project is the biggest public transport project ever undertaken in Victoria. Not only will it transform our rail network, it will also offer job and training opportunities for thousands of Victorians.”
The opening of the MetroHub jobs centre follows that of Metro Tunnel HQ on Swanston Street, across the road from the Melbourne Town Hall, and which features a learning centre featuring an education programme for Victorian teachers and schoolchildren detailing the project’s construction techniques as well as the range of roles available in large infrastructure projects.
The $11 billion Metro Tunnel project, now in the beginning stages of its construction – carried out by the Cross Yarra Partnership consortium led by Lendlease Engineering, John Holland, Bouygues Construction and Capella Capital – will link the Sunbury and Cranbourne/Pakenham lines via a 9-kilometre tunnel, with five new stations.