The Future Leaders in Property Program offers our girls early exposure to the wide variety of career pathways available, whilst encouraging our students to understand and seek careers in the Property Industry. It provides students with the opportunity to explore and understand the broad industries that are accessible to them including property, finance, law and technology.

On Tuesday 4 May, the Year 9 Finance, Business and Entrepreneurship elective visited the Victorian Heart Hospital site due to be completed in November 2022, to learn on a construction site, hosted by Dexus Property and the John Holland Group.

The Victorian Heart Hospital is a 43,945 m2 gross floor area, which will hold 203 beds including 15 ICU beds, 48 same day beds and 98 IPU beds. The hospital will include an emergency department, catherisation labs, specialist surgical and imaging facilities, a helipad and much more.

During the excursion, our students learned about the differing components of the construction process, the integration of design with construction, the construction process, pathways to the Industry and construction materials. On this medium size building site there are on average 400 staff on-site and 40 staff running the project. During the engagement with the engineers and architects who worked with our students, they learned and touched different components of the building materials including a piece of the concrete formwork, plasterboard, glass and the supporting structures in the elevator (apparently the safest place to stay, when you are in an earthquake – just not inside the elevator!).

Sarah Tozer, Conversion Lead, guided our students through the back end of the site, and spoke of the design and construction process from the Idea, design and concepts, testing the concept, pricing the concept, engaging the builder, completing the design, building the design to handing over the building in perfect working order. We were fortunate to hear from Paul Morgan who manages the 3D Building information model component of the project, starting his study at TAFE, moving to Architecture and now he is working in Engineering. We also heard from two Engineers in the Graduate program, both who started studying Architecture and are now working for the John Holland Group in the Engineering department.

Our students enjoyed learning about the varying roles in Property including Architecture, Construction Managers, Property Manager, Accountants, Conversion Leads, Carpenters, Feasibility experts and more through our Industry based Partnership with Dexus Property.

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Some student reflections from their learnings from the Future Leaders in Property construction site visit:

“I learnt about all the different materials used to build a building, and how the materials actually affect someone’s feeling towards a particular place. For example, building a wall with little holes in it, adds a ‘pop’ to the overall room, which might make whoever comes in to the room, feel a certain way and want to come back again. I enjoyed touring the outside of the construction site, as you can see the different aspects that go into constructing a building, for example, the cranes. I want to know more about how the idea to build this hospital was made and why people came up with the idea to make a hospital just for heart-related patients.” Amy Ding Year 9

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“I learnt how they used 3D BIM to observe their buildings and all the features the program allows, and for this particular project, through the digital program, doctors were able to have a feel of what the building will be like before actually stepping into the building. I enjoyed being able to learn about the different materials used for construction such as the different plasters that we use. I want to know more about how they use the land to turn it from a normal paddock into a building.” Tszki (Lily) Zhang Year 9

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“I learned how there is up to 51 million pages worth of words from the virtual building plans. I enjoyed being able to be at a construction site of such an amazing building in the making. I want to know more about what subjects you need to be able to take these career pathways.” Sophie Dreaver Year 9

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“I learned about how it takes millions of drawings to create such a detailed 3D model such as the one used for the heart hospital and if something changes the whole team needs to get together to fix the problem and change the design. I also learnt that there are so many different job pathways in construction and architecture, so I really enjoyed hearing about that as I believe that it is both a really important and interesting industry. I would like to know more about the details of construction and how they employ the workers for the onsite construction as they stated that they have 400 workers on site so I think the process of hiring them would also be interesting to hear.” Keira O’Hara, Year 9

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“I learnt the process of building a building from 2D drawing to 3D model to an actual building. The 3D modeling that shows the planned structure and the features is very interesting and new to see. I enjoyed looking at all the building materials such as the concreate or the ceilling. During the tour we learnt that there will be 1000 workers working on the building and I would like to know more about how they organise who does what.” Qing Chun (Joanna) Yang, Year 9

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“During the excursion, I learned how integral and useful 3D modelling was to the designing, developing and building aspects of constructing. It surprised me how models are able to provide the equivalent to over 51 million pages of information, and how they can even be used to send to other companies in order for required parts and aspects such as ducting to be manufactured and then transported back to the construction site. I enjoyed being able to learn more about the construction process and being able to see a real life job site up close, and hearing how many different pathways there are into the construction industry. What I want to know is how they are able to transport cranes onto the top of tall buildings such as skyscrapers, and how they lower them down again.” Sienna Rigg, Year 9

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“I learnt about the many factors required in infrastructure, and how they all merge to work harmoniously together. I enjoyed learning about the 3D modelling that could be used to visualise the entire building before being built, and all the facilities and purposes of each room/level. In the future, I would love to learn about the career pathways to construction, as well as learn more about the steps that are taken to create and process the building and a large-scale project.” Nadia Mohamed, Year 9

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Providing our students with the hands-on exposure to networking with industry partners is designed to open their minds to think more deeply about their careers and to support them to shape their future. We want to inspire our young women to be strong future leaders.

We would like to thank Dexus Property and the John Holland Group for being so generous with their time and for providing our girls with hands-on knowledge and experience about the different career pathways that are possible.