GE launches technology and learning centre in Australia for oil and gas industry

US-based General Electric (GE) announced has that it has opened a technology and learning centre in Jandakot, Western Australia.

The centre, which will also have centres in Brazil and the Middle East, will lend support to Australia’s oil and gas industry.

As well as the oil and gas industry, the centre will provide training to workforces required for healthcare, power generation, mining and transportation sectors.

The centre includes classrooms and an experimental workshop to provide students with a hands-on learning environment.

GE said the centre has been built in collaboration with different associations, governments and leading businesses, while Chevron, Woodside, ConocoPhillips and Navitas also provided support.

GE Australia president and CEO Steve Sargent said the new development centre will help the customers by providing essential training to workforces in order to increase productivity.

"We are committed to training more than 300 people a year at the centre, delivering accredited training programmes locally that otherwise would have been available only offshore," Sargent added.

"This means that our employees and our customers’ employees are gaining transferrable skills that will follow them wherever they work."

Australia, which has a shortage of skilled resource sector workers, requires about 70,000 skilled resource workers to meet demand from mining companies.

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Image: GE’s technology and learning centre will provide support to oil and gas industry in Australia. Photo: Courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net.