Global business giant GE has announced plans to open an $80 million custom-built technology and learning complex on a 100,000-square metre site at Jandakot Airport.
Global business giant GE has announced plans to open an $80 million custom-built technology and learning complex on a 100,000-square metre site at Jandakot Airport.
GE’s global chairman and chief executive Jeff Inmelt flew into Perth for the announcement with the Federal Government’s Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations minister, Chris Evans.
The complex will be designed to provide skills and training to support growth in the oil and gas, energy, mining, transportation and water industries.
The investment builds on GE’s presence in Western Australia, which includes the former Vetco Gray oil and gas services business it acquired several years ago. Now trading as GE Oil and Gas, the group has won major contracts on some of the state’s largest projects, including the Gorgon gas development.
In 2009, it secured a $400 million contract to provide equipment to drive Gorgon’s LNG production and the project’s carbon dioxide sequestration scheme, which will be the world’s largest.
In 2008, GE signed a five-year agreement to supply subsea equipment and support services to the Gorgon project.
GE said the Jandakot complex would be a “community of technical best practice” for industry, offering 4,800 accredited training days to non-GE employees, with a further 2,000 training days for GE employees.
It will be the first to offer the full range of technical training required to meet the demands of the resources sector in Australia, and will also be the first GE training facility globally to be accredited against the national qualification framework.
GE Australia and New Zealand president Steve Sargent said developing the right skills was essential to fuelling Australia’s economic growth and ensuring that the maximum value was created from projects like Gorgon.
“Working with the Australian government to invest in a highly skilled labour force is going to create tremendous value for both the industries that are thriving here, and the local economy,” he said.
The GE complex has been designed as a multi-purpose facility and headquarters for the group’s operations in Perth.
The complex includes workshops to service and commission products and technology in WA along with the Learning and Development facility, designed to deliver top-class engineering and leadership training.
Construction of the first stage of the complex is under way and expected to be completed in September.
