Scott Adams, Managing Principal, Argon & Co NZ

In today’s manufacturing landscape, technology, automation, and efficiency are no longer enough. Your real competitive edge comes from your people — their capability, confidence, and ability to adapt, innovate, and perform. That’s where The Argon Academy stands apart. 

For more than 20 years, Argon & Co has worked alongside New Zealand and global organisations to lift performance by strengthening skills, embedding continuous improvement, and developing leaders who drive transformation from the inside out.

The Academy exists because we saw a critical gap: too much training focuses on delivering content, not building capability. Most programmes are taught by facilitators — not practitioners who have actually led the change and delivered results. The Academy was built to change that.

Our learning approach is different. Every programme is grounded in real-world experience from practitioners who have managed transformation, driven productivity gains, and delivered measurable business outcomes across sectors like food and beverage, packaging, industrial manufacturing, and logistics. This means your teams learn from people who’ve done the work — not just talked about it.

Rather than providing off-the-shelf courses, The Academy partners with clients to co-design tailored, best-practice learning pathways that align directly with your operational goals. We build capability that sticks — embedding new skills, behaviours, and mindsets into the way people lead, collaborate, and perform every day. 

This practitioner-led approach transforms training from a cost into a strategic investment. It creates measurable uplift in productivity, safety, and employee engagement — turning learning into a sustained competitive advantage.

As businesses face mounting pressure from digitisation, sustainability, and global competition, the need for a digitally capable, future-ready workforce has never been greater. Building that capability takes long-term investment, government and industry collaboration, and access to world-class learning solutions. Quick-fix training won’t get you there — a sustained capability development system will.

The Argon Academy gives manufacturers a proven way to build that system. It’s structured, scalable, and focused on delivering real results — enabling your people to perform today and adapt to the challenges of tomorrow.

Your journey to world-class performance starts with developing your people — and The Argon Academy is your partner in making that transformation real.