How to get an apprenticeship in New Zealand
The single thing most people get wrong: you find the employer first. An apprenticeship is a job with training attached, not a course you enrol in and then look for work.
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How long did your apprenticeship take?
Put it on the record. Anonymous, about two minutes.
Add your timelineHow do you get an apprenticeship in New Zealand?
Secure the employment first. Pick a trade, get an employer to take you on, sign an employment agreement, then enrol with a tertiary education provider, who develops a training plan with you and your employer. Enrolling in a course before you have an employer is the most common mistake.
- Pick a trade. Not forever — just enough to know what you are applying for. Our trade pages give the length, the pay and the entry requirements for each one; for electrical work the steps to registration are laid out in order. Still at school? The Gateway programme lets you try the trade in a real workplace for NCEA credits.
- Get an employer to take you on. This is the hard step and the one that gates everything else. Knock on doors, search job sites, apply directly to firms that do the work you want to do.
- Sign an employment agreement. Read the wage clause. If it requires 60 credits a year of industry training and you are 20 or over, you are on the training minimum wage of $19.16 — check what you are owed before signing.
- Enrol with a tertiary education provider. They arrange the apprenticeship and develop a training plan with you and your employer, covering on-job and off-job training plus assessments.
- Check Apprenticeship Boost has been claimed. Your employer has 20 days from when your training starts. How the $500 a month works →
What are employers looking for in an apprentice?
Someone worth a multi-year commitment: reliability, a driver licence if the trade needs one, and a genuine reason for choosing that trade. It helps to know that Apprenticeship Boost covers $500 a month of your first year, because many small firms taking on their first apprentice have never heard of it.
Understand what they are weighing up. An apprentice is a multi-year commitment for a small firm: wages from day one, supervision time, and someone who is not yet productive for a while. Anything you can put in front of them that lowers that cost or that risk is worth saying out loud, in the interview, for free.
Where do you find employers that take on apprentices?
Knock on doors, search job sites, and apply directly to firms that do the work you want to do. Your tertiary education provider may also help match you with employers. To start you off, we list 42 New Zealand businesses that take on apprentices, by trade and region — approach them directly, as we have no relationship with any of them and cannot pass on an application.
Browse employers → · By region →
Common questions
Do I need to enrol in a course before I find an employer?
No, and doing it in that order is the most common mistake. You must secure employment first. Your tertiary education provider then develops a training plan with you and your employer.
What qualifications do I need to start an apprenticeship?
It varies by trade. NCEA Level 2 is the usual entry point for most trades, and for some it is only 'useful' rather than required. Each of our trade pages quotes the requirement for that specific trade.
What is a training plan?
A document your tertiary education provider develops with you and your employer. It sets out your on-job and off-job training — block courses, day release or evening classes — and the assessments you will complete.
How do I find an employer who takes apprentices?
Knock on doors, search job websites and apply directly. Your tertiary education provider may also help match you with employers looking for apprentices.
The process, the training plan and the advice to find an employer first are from Tahatū Career Navigator (Tertiary Education Commission) — About apprenticeships, checked 2026-09-18. Wage floors from Employment New Zealand; Apprenticeship Boost figures from Work and Income.