The Metro Tunnel’s rollout of the Major Projects Skills Guarantee is opening up career paths for young Victorians.
Doing its bit to help create a skilled modern-day workforce, while delivering the infrastructure that Victorians urgently need, is a core focus of the $11 billion Metro Tunnel Project.
The megaproject, which currently employs 1,500 people with that number expected to swell to 2,500 during 2018, is bringing to life the Victorian Government’s Major Skills Projects Guarantee (MSPG) that requires contractors on public projects valued at more than $20 million to use apprentices, trainees or engineering cadets for at least 10 per cent of total labour hours.
Factor in the timeline and sheer scale of the project – due for completion in 2026, it’s the state’s largest ever public transport project and the first addition to the underground railway network constructed for more than a generation – and that percentage total of labour hours represents a major skills boost for young Victorian workers and those keen to reskill.
And the types of roles on offer is diverse, taking in everything from diesel fitter apprentice to human resource trainee to civil engineering cadet.
Along with the Metro Tunnel, more than 50 Victorian Government funded projects will be applying the Major Project Skills Guarantee, including the Level Crossing Removal Project and West Gate Tunnel Project.
Other employment initiatives are also in play. Metro Tunnel contractors are required to achieve an Aboriginal Employment Target of 2.5 per cent (introduced in 2015 for all projects delivered as part of the Major Transport Infrastructure Program) and a two-year Metro Tunnel graduate program is underway, giving 47 graduates an opportunity to work with world-class industry experts on three six-month rotations in their professional area, including one six-month stint with an external partner.
Proof of the graduate program’s success? Some former graduates have gone on to secure jobs with industry heavyweights such as Aurecon, John Holland, MTM, GHD and Mott MacDonald.
Further information is available on the Metro Tunnel website's jobs page.
