Painter and decorator apprenticeships in New Zealand
Painters and decorators prepare surfaces and apply paint and wallpaper to walls, doors, windows and other building surfaces.
Last checked .
How long did your apprenticeship take?
Put it on the record. Anonymous, about two minutes.
Add your timelineHow long is a painter and decorator apprenticeship, and what does it pay?
A painter and decorator apprenticeship in New Zealand takes 0–3 years. Once qualified, the job most commonly pays $24–$36 an hour, starting at $24 an hour and reaching $45 an hour with experience. No registration is required for this trade.
- How long it takes
- 0–3 years
- Pay when starting out
- $24 an hour
- Most common pay
- $24–$36 an hour
- Experienced
- $45 an hour
- School qualifications
- NCEA Level 2 if you are still at school.
- 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 a painter and decorator apprenticeship?
An employer willing to take you on, first of all — everything else follows the job. NCEA Level 2 if you are still at school. Beyond that, what a painter and decorator apprenticeship asks for is:
- An apprenticeship in painting, decorating and signwriting.
- The New Zealand Certificate in Painting and Decorating (Level 4). A driver licence 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 →
Which New Zealand employers take on painter and decorator apprentices?
We list 1 of them, across 1 region: Auckland. 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.
Pay, duration and entry requirements quoted from Tahatū Career Navigator — Painter and decorator, read 2026-09-18. Wage floors from Employment New Zealand, checked 2026-11-01.