The Melbourne Polytechnic Future of Housing Construction Centre of Excellence will train a new generation of house builders
The federal and Victorian governments are investing a combined $50 million to establish the Melbourne Polytechnic Future of Housing Construction Centre of Excellence – the first dedicated training facility in Australia focused exclusively on advanced construction courses.
This partnership will help provide a critical workforce productivity boost for the construction industry, to deliver our national housing needs.
The centre will be a driving force for nationwide growth in skills development for Modern Methods of Construction (MMC). Additionally, it will help address critical skills needs in the housing construction sector, by providing innovative training and creating an applied research hub.
The centre will focus on the design and delivery of new training practices; cutting-edge equipment will be a feature in the purpose-built facilities and digital technologies will be front and centre, with students having access to a holographic training suite.
- Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to receive the latest news in the earthmoving industry
- Never miss a great deal and subscribe to our monthly magazine
- Download a free copy of our latest digital magazine to catch up on the biggest news and developments in the earthmoving industry
With a goal of training and upskilling the next generation of the country’s housing workforce, TAFEs across Australia will benefit from the centre’s work as it explores better ways to support industry experts to transition into teaching roles and build MMC teaching capability.
prefabAUS will provide expertise in prefabrication and modular construction techniques. Industry partners will be co-located at the centre to further incorporate collaboration.
This announcement follows the recent announcement of 5,200 new Free TAFE places in housing and construction courses for Victorians, providing accessible training opportunities and supporting national housing priorities.
This forms part of the Australian government’s $325 million investment under the five-year National Skills Agreement, to establish a network of up to 20 TAFE Centres of Excellence.
The centre will be located at Melbourne Polytechnic’s Heidelberg campus and builds on the work of its Advanced Manufacturing Centre of Excellence. It will also adopt the learnings from Melbourne Polytechnic’s Clean Economy Skills Lab for Residential Building and Skills Lab for Circular Design.
The centre will collaborate with industry, other TAFEs, universities, Jobs and Skills Councils and innovation partners, including the Building 4.0 Cooperative Research Centre, on applied research and real-world problem-solving programs in MMC and systems.