Tauranga Boys’ College alumnus Charlie Cunningham, 20, had not secured an electrical apprenticeship after a three-year search.
Cunningham took a retail job instead, while completing his pre-trade course at Toi Ohomai.
He finished his course last year but was still looking for work as an apprentice.
“I’ve sent quite a few emails, and people have put my name forward and recommended me, but I don’t hear back from them.”
Cunningham said he would move cities if needed.
Charlie Cunningham, 20, has been searching for an apprenticeship in the Bay of Plenty for three years.
Ex-Katikati College student Curtis Moore, 21, searched for a year before being employed as an electrical apprentice.
“Every four weeks, I’d go on a loop of all the electrical companies in Tauranga, asking for work experience or an apprenticeship. No one had anything for me.
“It got to the point where quite a few of the office ladies from the electrical companies around Tauranga knew me. I’d walk in, and they’d say, ‘Sorry, Curtis, we don’t have anything for you’.”
Moore had a spreadsheet during his search, where he recorded visiting 31 companies an average of three or four times each.
Apprenticeship numbers down
Toi Ohomai head of school Reg Hawthorne said enrolment numbers for pre-trade courses had remained consistent over the past few years, but numbers were slightly down for apprenticeship programmes.
Tauranga Boys’ College offered two vocational programmes: Gateway Placements and the Bay of Plenty Futures Academy.
Teacher in charge of trades academies Bradley Smith said these pathways helped match students with work opportunities.
However, the economic downturn meant trade opportunities were “lacking”.
Students were returning to school rather than getting jobs. .
In 2025, Tauranga Boys’ College had 90 more students than in 2024.
Smith said the “real humming year” was between 2021 and 2022.
Students were moving into employment “left, right, and centre”.
Warwick Quinn, Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation interim chief executive, said apprentice numbers peaked in 2022. Photo / 123rf
The Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation, New Zealand’s building and construction apprenticeship provider, supports apprenticeships at all stages of their journeys.
Interim chief executive Warwick Quinn said apprentice numbers peaked in 2022.
He said this was because of construction demand, economic conditions, a 60% increase in housing consents over the previous five years, and government interventions.
The Bay of Plenty Times asked whether government interventions were needed to support recovery from the 2024 recession, Quinn said government support could help stabilise and accelerate the construction sector’s recovery.
“We are in another skills slump and will not have sufficient numbers of skilled workers to respond to demand when the sector rebounds.”
Quinn said help for employers to hire and retain apprentices would ease pressure on businesses.
Schemes such as the Apprenticeship Boost and the Targeted Training and Apprenticeship Fund would also help.
‘We need a return to appropriate funding’
The Targeted Training and Apprenticeship Fund was a Government fund that covered fees for vocational education and training from July 1, 2020, until December 31, 2022.
The NZ Herald, in March 2021, reported more than 100,000 learners had signed up for vocational training and apprenticeships since the fund was introduced.
The Apprenticeship Boost was a scheme providing payments to employers to incentivise them to hire new apprentices.
The scheme was introduced as $1000 per month for apprentices in their first 12 months of training and $500 per month for apprentices in their second 12 months.
As of January 1, 2025, only first-year apprentices were eligible, and the payment was reduced to $500 per month.
Ministry of Social Development data obtained under the Official Information Act recorded a peak of 309 Apprenticeship Boost applications in 2021.
This number dropped year by year, with only 55 applications recorded for 2025.
Master Electricians chief executive Alexandra Vranyac-Wheeler said employers had no capacity to take on new apprentices. Photo / Supplied
Master Electricians chief executive Alexandra Vranyac-Wheeler said people were interested in entering the electrotechnology sector, but fewer employers had hiring capacity.
Lower and less predictable workloads, budget constraints, and uncertainty about future demand created difficult conditions for employers to commit to four-year apprenticeships.
“Employer support mechanisms must be strengthened, not reduced,” Vranyac-Wheeler said.
“We need a return to appropriate funding and provision of programmes, including the Apprenticeship Boost and the Targeted Training and Apprenticeship Fund, or comparable government-funded programmes.”
Master Plumbers and Masterlink – an apprenticeship programme specialising in plumbing, gasfitting, and drainlaying – chief executive Greg Wallace said apprenticeship uptake increased by about 27% when the Apprenticeship Boost was about $1000 per month.
“When that support reduced, we saw numbers decline. We would like to see that level of support reinstated.”
National apprentice numbers were down by more than 30%.
Wallace said the industry was seeing an exodus of qualified tradespeople heading to Australia.
Vocational Education Minister Penny Simmonds expected apprenticeship uptake to improve as infrastructure investment progressed. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Vocational Education Minister Penny Simmonds said there were no plans to reinstate the previous $1000 universal settings.
“The current targeted approach ensures the Apprenticeship Boost remains sustainable and focused on areas of workforce demand.”
Simmonds said the Government’s focus was now on sustainable, long-term funding settings.
“Budget 2025 invested an additional $398m in tertiary education over four years.”
She said this included increased tuition and training subsidies and more money for priority areas such as engineering, trades, primary industries, and health.
The Government expected apprenticeship uptake to improve as infrastructure investment progressed and business confidence strengthened, Simmonds said.
Strong construction forecast for Bay of Plenty
The Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment forecasted strong consenting activity for Waikato and the Bay of Plenty.
Almost 37,000 dwelling consents were expected between 2025 and 2030.
In Tauranga, the city council’s building consents report for February 2026 recorded 109 consents issued, valued at $72,285,246.
New Zealand Certified Builders (NZCB) chief executive Malcolm Fleming said the construction industry was starting to pick up again.
New Zealand Certified Builders chief executive Malcom Fleming. Photo / Supplied
There was an “upbeat feel in the economy”.
Fleming said two NZCB members were employing apprentices and enquired about the Apprenticeship Boost.
Priority One chief executive Dave Courtney expected job demand to grow with a strong pipeline of construction and infrastructure projects planned for the Western Bay of Plenty.
He said Priority One’s Youth Pathways team connected schools and unemployed young people with trades training pathways and construction and infrastructure employers.
Bijou Johnson is a multimedia journalist based in the Bay of Plenty. A passionate writer and reader, she grew up in Tauranga and developed a love for journalism while exploring various disciplines at university. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Studies from Massey University.