Skilled & Innovative Workforce
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In Melbourne, your business can bring together a high-calibre, skilled and experienced team.
Victoria’s talent pool is young – nearly half the population of 5.5 million is under 35 – and well educated. Victorians’ diverse origins foster an outlook of tolerance and internationalism.
Victorians are Australia’s most highly educated citizens, thanks to a concentration of world-class universities and training institutes in the state.
Nearly two out of three Victorians hold a post secondary qualification – while one in three have a university degree.
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Ways of seeing & doing
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Melburnians are comfortable with other ways of seeing and doing things – part of a rich, ongoing legacy of migration and overseas travel.
Proudly multicultural, Melbourne’s four million residents come from more than 200 countries. More than half were either born overseas themselves or have a parent born overseas.
More than a quarter of Melburnians speak a language other than English at home. Six Asian languages are among the 21 primary languages spoken in Melbourne households.
More than half a million Melburnians speak a European language other than English – the highest concentration in Australia. And Asian language speakers number more than 475,000.
Victoria is a significant provider of higher education to international students, led by India and China. Many international students go on to live and pursue careers in Victoria, providing businesses with multilingual skills and an international perspective.
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Melbourne delivers world firsts
In the past 150 years, Melbourne’s combination of talent, innovation and industry has given the world:
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- the electric drill in 1859
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- Mechanical refrigeration in the 1850s
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- Penicillin, co-developed by Howard Florey
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- the first five IVF births
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- the anti-flu drug, Relenza;
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- the cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil
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Education - universities
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Victoria’s world-class universities offer a steady supply of well-qualified and highly-skilled graduates. The open exchange of ideas encouraged in Victorian institutions drives innovation and creativity in the state.
Australia’s university system ranked seventh in the world in the 2010 World Competitiveness Yearbook – ahead of the USA (10th) and well ahead of the United Kingdom (28th), illustrating why Victoria is a magnet for international students.
Victoria has nine world-class universities, including eight in Melbourne’s central business district.
In 2010-11, The Times Higher Education Supplement (UK) ranked The University of Melbourne:
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- 18th in Clinical, Pre-clinical and Health
- 22nd in Arts and Humanities
- 24th in Social Sciences
- 28th in the world in Physical Sciences
- 30th in the world in Engineering & IT
- 32nd in the world in Life Sciences
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These rankings place this leading research institution ahead of global players such as the University of California (San Diego), Dartmouth (New Hampshire), and New York University.
Melbourne’s MBA courses are continually ranked among the world's best by the Financial Times World Top 100, Asia Week and The Economist Top 100 MBA rankings.
Victoria boasts the highest numbers of science, engineering and IT graduates in Australia, according to the latest available data. And the number of management and commerce graduates is second only to New South Wales.
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Vocational Education
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Victoria has a highly regarded government network of Technical and Further Education (TAFE) Institutes.
Courses are designed with close involvement by industry and business.
Students get hands-on learning in up-to-date settings ranging from commercial kitchens, auto workshops and even aeroplanes.
TAFE courses equip Victorians with the skills to become work-ready and stay globally competitive in manufacturing, building and construction, aviation and aerospace, and many other sectors.
Qualifications span certificate, diploma and short courses, and are taught by industry practitioners.
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Research and Innovation
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Melbourne is a global hub for research in medicine, science and innovation. In fact, Victoria is well on its way to becoming one of the world’s top five biotechnology locations.
This reflects a concerted effort from the Victorian Government, which was the first in Australia to create an Innovation ministry.
Over the past decade, there has been state government investment of almost $4 billion in Science, Technology and Innovation, under the Innovation: Victoria’s Future policy framework.
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Collaborative, productive and innovative workplaces
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Victoria provides fair, collaborative, productive and innovative workplaces with low levels of industrial disputes. Australia ranks number one for ease of employing working in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2010 report reflecting the ease of hiring, flexibility of hours, ease of redundancy and low redundancy costs.
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