The Gateway programme, explained for students and parents

What is Gateway?

Gateway is a programme the TEC funds schools to run. Its stated purpose is to let State, State-integrated and Charter schools give senior students “structured workplace learning that is integrated with school-based learning”. In plain terms: you spend part of your school time with an employer, doing real work under a plan agreed between you, the school and the workplace, and you are assessed on it.

It sits inside the Government’s Youth Guarantee set of programmes, which exist to get more students through NCEA Level 2 and into work or further study. The school gets funding for each eligible student, up to a number it agrees with the TEC each year, which is why places can be limited and why your careers adviser or Gateway coordinator decides who goes.

Who can do Gateway?

The TEC’s 2026 funding rules say an eligible student must be all three of:

• a domestic student (a New Zealand citizen or resident, in the Education and Training Act’s sense);
• enrolled at a State, State-integrated or Charter school; and
• in year 11 or above.

There is no upper year limit, so year 13 students do it too. Private (independent) schools are not funded for Gateway, so if that is your school, ask what work-experience arrangement it runs instead.

Do you get paid on Gateway?

No, and it is not up to the employer. One of the conditions the TEC attaches to Gateway funding is that the school “must ensure that students are not paid while undertaking a Gateway workplace learning placement”. You are at the workplace as a student, under the school’s programme, not as an employee.

The other side of that rule protects you. The school must not charge a tuition fee or course or equipment costs for Gateway, and it must make sure you have the equipment you need for the placement, which the rules spell out as tools, equipment, safety clothing and tuition material. If a school asks you to buy your own boots and hi-vis for a Gateway placement, that is worth a polite question. The school must also check that the employer knows its obligations to you and that the workplace is suitable for structured learning.

If an employer wants you on site outside the Gateway arrangement, doing their work for their benefit, that is a job and the ordinary wage rules apply. What apprentices and trainees must be paid →

Does Gateway count towards NCEA?

Yes. To be funded, a Gateway programme must have credits that contribute to NCEA or another qualification on the New Zealand Qualifications and Credentials Framework, must assess your workplace learning as credits, and must fit with the rest of your course. The TEC expects students to achieve, on average, 20 credits through Gateway, and those credits must come through the school’s Gateway programme rather than another funded scheme.

Schools are encouraged to line the credits up with one or more of the six Vocational Pathways: Primary Industries; Service Industries; Social and Community Services; Manufacturing and Technology; Construction and Infrastructure; and Creative Industries. For anyone heading for a trade, that usually means Construction and Infrastructure or Manufacturing and Technology credits, which are the ones a future training provider will recognise.

What do you actually do?

Most schools run Gateway as a day a week at the workplace across a term or two, or as a block, with the rest of the week at school; your school sets the pattern. Before you start, the school, you and the employer agree a plan that says what you will learn and which unit standards you will be assessed against. At work you do the real job at a beginner’s level: on a building site that is measuring, cutting and carrying under supervision; in a workshop it is cleaning, prepping and watching the tradesperson closely; in a kitchen it is prep and service. Someone at the workplace signs off what you have done, and the school turns that into credits.

The placements that lead somewhere are the ones where you turn up early, ask questions, and treat it as a long job interview, because that is what it is.

How Gateway leads into an apprenticeship

Every apprenticeship starts with an employer agreeing to take you on; the training is arranged around the job afterwards. The hard part is getting a stranger to say yes. Gateway removes the stranger problem: the employer has already seen you work for weeks and knows whether you are reliable, which is the whole decision. If you want an apprenticeship in the trade you are placed in, say so early, and ask before the placement ends whether they would take you on when you leave school.

• Choose the placement by the trade you want, not the one that is easiest to arrange. Our trade pages give the pay, length and entry requirements for each.
• Keep the credits. NCEA Level 2 with the right Vocational Pathway credits is the usual starting point for most trades, and Gateway credits count.
• Know what the employer gets. An employer who takes you on after school can claim Apprenticeship Boost for your first year; mentioning it helps a small firm say yes.
• If the placement does not turn into a job, you still leave with a reference from a tradesperson and a clear answer on whether you like the work. How to get an apprenticeship →

How to get on Gateway

Ask your school’s careers adviser or Gateway coordinator, early in the year, because places are limited by the number the school has agreed with the TEC. Be specific: “I want a placement with a plumber or an electrician” is easier to arrange than “something in the trades”. If you already know an employer who would have you, say so; schools can usually set a placement up with a business a student has found, as long as it passes their checks. Our index of employers that take apprentices is a place to start looking for names in your region.

Common questions

Eligibility, credits, the no-pay and no-fee conditions and the Vocational Pathways list are from the Tertiary Education Commission — 2026 Gateway funding mechanism, and the Youth Guarantee context from the Tertiary Education Commission — Gateway (fund finder), both checked 2026-10-23. How each school timetables Gateway is the school’s decision; the patterns above are descriptive, not rules.