The Andrews Labor Government has appointed partners to help Victoria’s major project leaders develop their skills and expertise as the state delivers a record $144 billion infrastructure program.

McKinsey & Company and the Stanford Centre for Professional Development will deliver the Office of Projects Victoria’s (OPV) pre-eminent Australian Major Projects Leadership Academy (AMPLA) program.

The 12-month program enhances the capability of public sector leaders to guide Victoria’s 160-plus major road and rail projects including Metro Tunnel, level crossing removals, the West Gate Tunnel, North East Link, Suburban Rail Loop, Melbourne Airport Rail and major road upgrades around the state.

Housing projects are led by the landmark $5.3 billion Big Housing Build, delivering 12,000 new housing units and increasing the stock of social and affordable housing in the state by 10 per cent in four years.

Health projects include construction of the new Footscray Hospital, expansion of the emergency departments at the Casey Hospital Berwick and Werribee Mercy Hospital, and redevelopment of the Ballarat Base Hospital.

Fine-tuning construction management and leadership skills, the training focuses on onsite learning tailored to participants’ needs, with their areas of professional growth identified using capability development plans.

Participants are provided specific work-related tools and undertake real-time learning by identifying and completing a workplace project over the course of the program.

The Labor Government, through OPV, is driving the growth of construction leadership and management skills with the AMPLA program. The appointed consultants in conjunction with OPV will ensure AMPLA builds on its national and international reputation for project management training.

Victoria established AMPLA in 2019 and now authorities from around Australia seek to enrol their engineers and project managers in its program. By the end of the year, the AMPLA program will have trained 229 major project leaders from across Australia.

AMPLA has established its reputation by consistently providing the opportunity for project managers to work with some of the world’s leading academics and practitioners in major project leadership.

Quotes attributable to Treasurer Tim Pallas

“Victoria leads the way in delivering major projects that provide better health, education and transport options for the community, and one of the reasons is the excellence of our project management ranks and workforce.”

“This program builds the state’s project management and delivery skills and ensures Victorians get great value from every initiative on the go.”

Quote attributable to Office of Projects Victoria CEO Cressida Wall

“This world-class upskilling initiative will ensure that our key decision makers are on top of their game with enhanced skillsets that are critical when delivering a multi-billion dollar infrastructure pipeline of projects.”