$50 million National Housing Construction Training Centre for Melbourne Polytechnic

$50 million National Housing Construction Training Centre for Melbourne Polytechnic.

The Federal and Victorian governments have announced joint funding to develop the Future of Housing Construction Centre of Excellence (FHC CoE) at Melbourne Polytechnic’s Heidelberg campus. 

The $50 million centre is part of a nationwide network of 20 TAFE Centres of Excellence and is the first for Victoria.

The centre addresses critical skills shortages and the demand to build 1.2 million new Australian homes by 2029, under the National Housing Accord.

The FHC CoE is the first dedicated training facility in Australia focused exclusively on advanced construction. It will be a driving force for nationwide growth in skills development for Modern Methods of Construction (MMC). It will accelerate the industry growth in sustainable, modular, prefabricated and modern building methods and enable the delivery of affordable, high-quality and environmentally-responsible housing.

It 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.

Beyond innovative training methods, the centre will support industry through applied research and innovation and enable them to respond to net-zero targets and initiatives.

Australia’s MMC peak body, prefabAUS will provide expertise and industry partners will be co-located at the centre to optimise collaboration and open opportunities for experts to transition to teaching roles to address teacher workforce shortages.

The FHC CoE will disseminate best-practice across the Victorian and national TAFE network to drive a modernised construction sector, which has remained largely unchanged over decades and reliant on traditional, labour-intensive and increasingly outdated methods.

Located at Melbourne Polytechnic’s Heidelberg campus, the centre, will be embedded in one of Victoria’s leading training centres for building trades.

Frances Coppolillo, Chief Executive of Melbourne Polytechnic said, “The new FHC CoE will be co-located alongside our existing Heidelberg-based Advanced Manufacturing Centre of Excellence and supported by the new Clean Economy Skills Labs (Residential Building and Construction and Circular Design & Manufacturing) creating a powerhouse of innovation.

“This will provide students with access to next generation skills and jobs and support the industry shift to more sustainable and efficient construction solutions to help meet Australia’s ambitious housing targets.”

The FHC CoE will also benefit from MP’s established inclusion and gender program which can help ameliorate the gender-based skills gap by attracting more women to the trade, which has traditionally proved challenging for the sector.

This announcement follows the commitment of the Federal and Victorian governments of 5,200 new Free TAFE places in housing and construction courses for Victorians.

The FHC CoE operations are expected to start in a temporary location at Melbourne Polytechnic in mid 2025.