Toni Christie, Competenz General Manager, Employer and Learner Experience.

 A strengthened apprenticeship support system is driving higher completion rates across engineering and manufacturing — helping New Zealand build the skilled workforce it needs. Toni Christie explains how industry training organisation Competenz redesigned their apprentice learning experience to give every one of their learners the tools – and confidence – to finish what they start.

In the three years since COVID-19, Māori credit achievement in mechanical engineering apprenticeships has surged from 49 percent to 72 percent, while Pasifika learners have lifted from 45 percent to 64 percent.

For decades, Māori and Pasifika apprentices were among the least likely to complete their training. Now, in some of New Zealand’s most technically demanding industries, they’re leading the way. These outcomes prove that when learner support is reimagined, equity is not only possible – it’s measurable.

A few years ago, too many apprentices were falling through the cracks. They arrived to on-job-training with potential but little guidance – like trying to start an engine with half the wiring missing.

In 2019, a review of the New Zealand Certificate in Mechanical Engineering revealed that 42 percent of first-year learners were inactive, meaning they weren’t making enough progress within a defined period.

Many were under 25, struggling with self-directed study or the literacy and numeracy skills their training required.

By 2024, only 42 percent of new learners entered training above the national benchmark for literacy and numeracy – down from 70 percent just two years earlier. In other words, most apprentices now need extra support simply to get started.

Many of our apprentices arrive with talent and ambition, but the system alone wasn’t giving them the tools to succeed. We needed to design a framework that met apprentices and trainees where they were.

That framework, introduced in 2021 and aligned with the Tertiary Education Commission’s strategy for tackling inequities in tertiary education, has changed everything from retention to achievement.

More than a thousand apprentices now take part in fortnightly study groups – some online, some face-to-face, and many tailored for Māori, Pasifika, or neurodiverse learners. Chromebooks and C-Pen readers help level the digital playing field.

Mental-health services through our wellbeing partner Vitae provide counselling and support. Financial hardship is eased through dedicated learner funds. Quarterly whānau sessions and learner packs bring families into the journey, creating a sense of shared achievement and belonging.

For Wiremu, a first-year mechanical apprentice, the early days were tough. He told us he knew he could do the work, but sometimes he didn’t have the words. Joining a small study group of Māori apprentices changed that.

The group participants helped each other through the theory and the paperwork. Now Wiremu is mentoring the next intake.

When our learners are given the right tools and support, they don’t just finish their training – they lift the industries and communities around them.

For Sela, a Pasifika refrigeration apprentice juggling work, study and family, told us it was a financial-literacy session that made the difference. “No one had ever talked to me about managing money for the long term,” she told us. “Now I know my goals aren’t just for me – they’re for my kids too.”

The results speak for themselves. First-year retention has stabilised at around 80 percent across mechanical engineering and fabrication. Credit achievement rates have climbed steadily in refrigeration and air conditioning.

Forestry, a sector with its own complex challenges, now has tailored learner-support plans. Across the board, apprentices are staying engaged and progressing where once they might have stalled or dropped out entirely.

What Competenz has built is more than a patchwork of interventions. It’s a culturally responsive, practical support framework that works. The challenge now is to scale it nationally across other industries, so every person learning in every trade has the same chance to succeed.

The lesson is simple: when you meet apprentices and trainees where they are – not where the system assumes they should be – they succeed. And when they succeed, so do the industries that depend on them.

Manufacturing, forestry, HVAC and mechanical engineering are already short of qualified people. Every apprentice who completes their qualification is another set of hands, another career secured, another contribution to New Zealand’s resilience and productivity.

Supporting our apprentices is no longer just a moral obligation. It’s an economic strategy. As the government creates new Industry Skills Boards to reshape vocational education, we challenge those Boards to follow our example. Because when learners thrive, industries thrive – and New Zealand is stronger for it.

Competenz works with 3500 employers and more than 7,000 apprentices and people in work-based training to build skills, careers and businesses that help New Zealand thrive.