Jobs and skills

The City of Melton boasts enviable proximity to major logistics infrastructure such as roads, rail, seaports and airports that link business to national and international markets.

Melton City Council is responding to the challenge of ensuring the city’s population growth is matched by local employment and economic growth.

To meet this challenge, we will facilitate the institutional, investment, enterprise and workforce conditions to support a larger, more diverse and dynamic local economy with abundant high-value jobs.

As we approach 500,000 residents by 2051, our community’s work-life balance, environmental performance, social inclusiveness and resilience will depend on the growth, flexibility and dynamism of our local economy.

Supply chain and logistics hubs will create more than 39,000 new jobs over the next 30 years within sites such as the Western Intermodal Freight Terminal Precinct, Melbourne Business Park, Dexus 3023 Horizon Estate and the Western State Significant Industrial Precinct.

Global giants including Nike, Amazon, Elders, Lululemon, Electrolux, Myer, Hello Fresh and Metcash have already capitalised on the opportunities the City of Melton presents. More global brands are looking to set up a home in our community.

We seek the commitments from government to fastrack the development of employment precincts to create opportunity, and certainty for investment attraction.

The strategic vision for the Cobblebank Metropolitan Activity Centre includes new health, justice, education and civic precincts. Work will start on the Melton Hospital in 2024 opening in 2029 and land has been acquired for a new private hospital.

St Francis Catholic Secondary College will be joined by a new government secondary school and $55 million has been allocated to build the new Melton TAFE, set to open in 2028. The Victorian Government has committed to remove the level crossing which sits at the heart of the activity centre on Ferris Road by 2028.

Council has committed to build the new Cobblebank Community Services Hub to house the allied health and community services our community needs.

This important facility will be sited next to the already established business incubator, Western BACE and the Cobblebank train station.

Melton Hospital will be the first hospital to be powered by 100 per cent renewable energy and includes an education and training hub for doctors and nurses.

Our booming economy will need tens of thousands of skilled workers in the coming years. New supply chain and logistics hubs will create 39,000 jobs over the next 30 years. Construction of 96,000 new dwellings and $1 billion of community infrastructure over the next 30 years will create an estimated 300,000 jobs.

At least 1,370 kindergarten teachers will be needed to support the 36,060 children aged under five in 2051 and new schools opening now and into the future will need skilled and qualified educators.

We welcome the Victorian Government investment of $55 million to construct a new TAFE in Cobblebank by 2028 to target the construction trades industries.

The City of Melton has seen a decline in TAFE enrolments between 2019 and 2021. Even with rapid population growth there were 4,340 less TAFE students in 2021 compared to 2019. Our area also has a higher level of youth disengagement compared to the Greater Melbourne average.

Whilst we welcome the new TAFE, we are seeking an increased scope of training to address workforce shortages and deliver the skills required for tomorrow’s workforce including logistics, health, education and community services.

With workplace shortages across the municipality and high levels of disengaged youth, we need to start training the workforce of tomorrow – today.

As part of a broader health precinct in Cobblebank, a partnership with hospitals and research  organisations and a university provider could deliver tertiary education.

The Melton Hospital will be a tertiary hospital with provision for training and we are seeking a commitment for funding to prepare a future workforce for the hospital.

The new university would be aligned with the hospital to train doctors, specialists, nurses, midwifery, and allied health practitioners. The university will provide tertiary education to the north and west outer metropolitan areas and regional centres. The university could also deliver education needs in engineering and science.

We seek Australian and Victorian Government support to plan for and establish a University campus in the Cobblebank precinct.

Melbourne’s west is home to 50 per cent of existing interstate freight rail customers. The Western Intermodal Freight Terminal (WIFT) is located in the Western State Significant Industrial Precinct, Victoria’s largest. The WIFT is designed to take rail freight from the Port of Melbourne to logistics hubs in Melbourne’s west and interstate, servicing Australia's east-west corridor. This gets trucks off roads increasing productivity and safety, whilst reducing congestion and emissions.

The WIFT is supported by the supply chain and logistics industry as a critical investment need. It will increase productivity, create approximately 1,360 jobs during construction, 2,000 ongoing jobs and attract commercial investment to create 39,000 jobs over the next 30 years.

The Outer Metropolitan Ring (OMR) is a 70-kilometre reservation from Little River in Melbourne’s south-west to Kalkallo in the north. It has provision for freight and passenger rail tracks and six road lanes.

The OMR will connect the Hume Freeway, Calder Highway, Western Highway, and Princess Freeway to freight transport hubs and employment precincts such as Melbourne Airport, Port of Melbourne and regional centres.

The OMR will connect Freight rail between the Commonwealth’s Inland Rail Project in Beveridge to the WIFT and south-west rail and take trucks off our roads. With the Western Ring Road at capacity, the OMR is critical to unlocking employment and investment in the outer west and connecting growth residential areas.