Australia’s largest project development and contraction group, Leighton, is planning to set up training institutes in India. The initiative comes after the group today set up a joint venture with real estate company Emaar MGF that will invest $150 million.

To fill the shortage of trained manpower, the company plans to provide training at two levels. It will set up two institutes, in Delhi and Mumbai, that will provide integrated graduate and post-graduate programmes in architecture, construction, accounting and other real-estate related fields.

The institutes will have 400-500 seats and are expected to start by August. “We are talking to several Indian institutes including the IITs for meeting faculty requirements,” said Leighton MD (South Asia) David Savage. The group also plans to train workers like carpenters, electricians and plumbers in line with global standards.

“Most on-site workers are daily wage labourers who can’t be sent to a training school. So we are planning to work with the Technical and Further Education (TAFE) system to bring their curriculum. TAFE is an initiative of the Australian government that provides courses for vocational education and training. We will train trainers who will further train on-site labour working on projects,” said Michele Johnson, regional human resources manager at Leighton.