The North East Link Program has launched a new skills and jobs centre in Watsonia, which will serve as a central point for connecting locals to employment opportunities and new skills to help build the legacy infrastructure project.
The Centre is a one-stop shop to support industry and connect North East Link Project contractors, locals, jobseekers, students, and social enterprises with employment opportunities, skills development and social value initiatives on the project.
With the project set to create over 10,000 jobs a big focus is on creating local jobs for local people. With a preferred bidder selected for the tunnelling package and early works well underway, there are already 900 workers on the project, with a huge workforce needed when major construction gets underway.
As part of the Government’s Local Jobs First Policy 10 per cent of total work hours will be done by apprentices, trainees or cadets. Early works have already provided job opportunities for 22 apprentices, 28 trainees and 14 cadets, who have worked more than 70,000 hours moving key utilities out of the way of North East Link.
The North East Link Skills and Jobs Centre is also working alongside Apprenticeships Victoria within the Department of Education and Training, Group Training Organisations, local social enterprises, community groups and education institutions to prioritise opportunities for those who face barriers to employment.
Once a major contractor is in place for the North East Link tunnelling package the Centre will also help connect jobseekers with employers on the project – covering everything from engineering and construction trades to traffic management, conservation land management and administration.
Apprenticeships Victoria’s Big Build Apprenticeship program will also provide up to 1500 new opportunities for apprentices and trainees each year across a range of Big Build and major projects, helping to kickstart careers on some of Victoria's biggest and most iconic projects.
The dedicated Skills and Jobs Centre is a partnership project between North East Link and Apprenticeships Victoria.
The Skills and Jobs Centre is located at 17 Watsonia Road, Watsonia. It is open from 10am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.