Disadvantaged young people will be employed to maintain the Newport Rail Academy under a three-year partnership between the state government and YMCA Rebuild.
The academy was established in 2007 to train Victoria’s rail and tram workers.
YMCA ReBuild manager Gary Sinclair said the contract would give many disadvantaged young people multiple training pathways.
“They will have the opportunity to be rotated through this contract to provide experience in areas such as landscaping, painting, at-heights work including window and gutter cleaning, and general maintenance,” he said.
“Companies can make a discernible difference to the community by engaging social enterprises like ReBuild that provide commercial services such as landscaping, painting and maintenance whilst simultaneously targeting a range of social issues such as those faced by young offenders.”
Industry and Employment Minister Ben Carroll said that through the partnership, supervisors would work one-on-one with young trainees.
Work would include maintaining the gardens and fences, carpentry repairs
and painting. Crews will also fit-out a new classroom in the academy’s high-voltage substation students to learn how to maintain Melbourne’s train network.
