From 1 January 2026 New Zealand moved to a new independent, industry-led model for work-based learning. Vocational education and training providers now manage all elements of apprenticeship and traineeship programmes, taking guidance from newly established Industry Skills Boards.
For employers who train, the relationships and processes have changed.
What is different
The previous arrangement separated the organisation that arranged and monitored training from the organisation that delivered it. The new model consolidates programme management with providers, with Industry Skills Boards setting standards and providing industry direction.
The intent is a system more directly steered by the industries it serves, with clearer accountability for who does what.
What employers should do
- Confirm who administers training in your industry now. If your last apprentice was signed up under the old arrangements, do not assume continuity of contact or process.
- Check what financial support currently applies. Apprenticeship Boost applications fell from 309 in 2021 to 55 in 2025 following changes to that scheme, so what was available previously may not be now.
- Review your training agreements against current requirements.
- Engage with your Industry Skills Board if you have views on what the qualifications should cover. Industry-led means industry input, and employers who do not provide it get standards designed by those who did.
The employment obligations are unchanged
Whatever the training system, apprentices and trainees are employees with full entitlements:
- Minimum wage, with starting-out and training wage rates available in defined circumstances that have specific conditions worth confirming.
- Holiday pay, sick leave and public holidays.
- KiwiSaver employer contributions at 3.5 percent, rising to 4 percent on 1 April 2028.
- A written employment agreement containing the required content.
If you use a trial period, the agreement must be signed before the first day of work, with genuine opportunity to take advice. This is the requirement most often failed and it invalidates the protection entirely.
Training cost recovery clauses
Employers investing in a qualification frequently want protection if the person leaves shortly after completing it. That is legitimate and it has conditions.
Any repayment obligation must be agreed in writing and must be reasonable — typically reducing over a defined period rather than being repayable in full at any point. And deducting from wages requires specific written consent; a general clause in the employment agreement is not sufficient for an arbitrary deduction, and consent can be withdrawn.
An unreasonable clause is unenforceable, so an overreaching one provides less protection than a moderate one.
Health and safety for trainees
Inexperienced workers are over-represented in injury statistics. They are unfamiliar with the work, less likely to recognise a hazard, and less likely to refuse an unsafe instruction.
What the duty requires in practice: genuine induction covering your actual hazards, task-specific training before the task with competence verified, close supervision on anything with serious harm potential, and a culture where a trainee can say they do not know how to do something without consequence.
That last one is cultural rather than procedural, and it is established the first time it happens.
The wider context
New entrants to workplace-based training fell 16 percent in 2025 to 16,780, and construction apprentice numbers are more than 30 percent below their 2022 peak, against an ageing workforce.
A reformed system does not by itself change those numbers. What changes them is employers deciding to train, which is a commercial decision made one business at a time.
For a business that can carry the investment, a thin pipeline now means scarcity of qualified people in four years — which is an argument for training rather than against it.
Education Counts publishes workplace-based learner statistics under an open licence, and Employment New Zealand publishes free agreement builders and guidance on trial periods and deductions.
Figures: Education Counts workplace-based learner data, 2025. Training system arrangements described took effect 1 January 2026 — confirm current requirements with your Industry Skills Board or provider. General information only.
