Automotive technician and mechanic apprenticeships in New Zealand
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Automotive technicians inspect, service and repair vehicle motors, mechanical parts and systems, diagnose faults and explain repairs to customers.
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How long did your apprenticeship take?
Put it on the record. Anonymous, about two minutes.
Add your timelineHow long is an automotive technician and mechanic apprenticeship, and what does it pay?
An automotive technician and mechanic apprenticeship in New Zealand takes 0–4 years. Once qualified, the job most commonly pays $28–$41 an hour, starting at $24 an hour and reaching $50 an hour with experience. No registration is required for this trade.
- How long it takes
- 0–4 years
- Pay when starting out
- $24 an hour
- Most common pay
- $28–$41 an hour
- Experienced
- $50 an hour
- School qualifications
- NCEA Level 2 may be useful, but is not specifically required.
- Registration
- Not required for this trade.
Those pay ranges are for the job, not for an apprentice. While you are training your legal floor is the training minimum wage of $19.16 an hour if you are 20 or over and your agreement requires at least 60 credits a year of industry training; otherwise it is the adult minimum of $23.95. Plenty of employers pay well above either. How apprentice pay works →
What do you need to start an automotive technician and mechanic apprenticeship?
An employer willing to take you on, first of all — everything else follows the job. NCEA Level 2 may be useful, but is not specifically required. Beyond that, what an automotive technician and mechanic apprenticeship asks for is:
- An apprenticeship in automotive engineering and mechanics.
- Experience in similar work, and a driver licence with a special-type vehicle endorsement, may be needed.
In every trade the order is the same: you find the employer first, then the training is arranged around the job. How to get an apprenticeship →
Weighing up the engineering trades side by side? Engineering apprenticeships compared →
Which New Zealand employers take on automotive technician and mechanic apprentices?
We list 7 of them, across 3 regions: Auckland, Waikato, Wellington. Each was verified against the company's own website, and each listing carries a name, a trade and a region only — this site holds no reviews or ratings of any of them.
- Ebbett Waikato
- Farmer Auto Village
- Hella New Zealand
- McCarthy Motor Group
- Porter Group
- Porter Group Hamilton
- Truckstops NZ
Pay, duration and entry requirements quoted from Tahatū Career Navigator — Automotive technician and mechanic, read 2026-09-18. Wage floors from Employment New Zealand, checked 2026-11-01.