A proposed $21 million-a-year investment in Māori-led skills training is being welcomed as an opportunity to rebuild pathways into skilled employment, but Māori workforce development advocate Ben Kingi says training must ultimately connect people with real employers and real jobs.
Labour has pledged to establish a new Māori-led training programme if elected, with marae, iwi trusts and Māori providers able to develop programmes responding to the workforce needs of their own communities.
The policy comes at a critical moment for vocational training, with apprenticeship participation falling sharply as economic conditions make employers increasingly reluctant or unable to take on new trainees.
Official Education Counts figures show apprentice numbers fell 14 percent during 2025 to 59,720, while the number of new apprentices entering training plunged 24 percent. Overall workplace-based learning fell 12 percent to 108,315 learners.
The figures reinforce a bigger question facing the next Government: if Aotearoa needs more builders, electricians, infrastructure workers and skilled tradespeople, where will the next generation actually come from?
$21 million a year for Māori-led training
Labour’s Backing Māori into Skilled Work policy would invest $21 million annually through a contestable fund available to Māori providers.
The proposal would allow marae, iwi trusts and Māori organisations to design and deliver training around the needs of local employers and communities.
It would combine practical skills and recognised qualifications with mentoring and support designed to help participants enter employment and remain there.
The programme would be open to Māori of all ages, including people entering employment for the first time, workers wanting to retrain and those seeking to move into higher-skilled and better-paid jobs.
Labour says the programme would begin as soon as possible after Budget 2027, funded through reprioritisation and existing baselines.
Māori development spokesperson Willie Jackson has indicated as many as 3,000 Māori could benefit.
Ben Kingi: training has to end with mahi
For Māori workforce development advocate Ben Kingi, the significance of Māori-led trades training is its ability to connect skills development with whānau, community and employers.
But the real measure of success cannot simply be how many people enrol in courses.
It has to be how many emerge with qualifications, apprenticeships and sustainable employment.
That distinction is increasingly important when Māori unemployment remains significantly higher than the national average and rangatahi Māori continue to face major barriers entering employment.
A training programme that produces qualifications without jobs simply shifts the problem further down the road.
What employers need and what Māori trainees are taught therefore have to connect.
Previous Māori programme produced results
Labour is pointing to its previous Māori Trades and Training initiative as evidence that a Māori-led approach can work.
According to Labour, 2,978 people participated in the previous programme before it ended, with 72 percent in employment by September 2024.
Nearly three-quarters of those who found work were in permanent employment.
Labour also says more than 80 percent of participants reported improvements in their ability to manage health and wellbeing, while more than 90 percent reported a positive impact on their whānau.
Construction was the largest employment sector for participants, followed by agriculture, forestry and fishing, and health and social assistance.
That broader range is important because trades and vocational training increasingly extend beyond the traditional image of building sites and workshops.
But apprenticeship pipeline is shrinking
The immediate problem is that New Zealand’s apprenticeship pipeline is moving in the opposite direction.
The number of apprentices fell by about 14 percent in 2025, with thousands fewer people continuing training and thousands fewer starting.
Education Counts says the decline reflects the relationship between workplace training and the wider economy.
When businesses are growing and have strong forward workloads, they are better positioned to employ apprentices.
When economic activity slows, employers have less capacity to take on inexperienced workers who require supervision and training.
That means fixing apprenticeship numbers cannot simply be achieved by encouraging more young people to become tradies.
Somebody has to employ them.
The employer side of the equation
For small and medium-sized trade businesses, taking on an apprentice represents an investment.
An apprentice earns while learning but also requires supervision from experienced workers.
During an economic downturn, when construction pipelines are uncertain and margins are squeezed, that investment can become harder for smaller businesses to make.
That creates a dangerous cycle.
Employers stop taking apprentices because there is insufficient work.
Young people cannot get the experience required to qualify.
Then, when construction and infrastructure activity eventually accelerates, the country discovers it does not have enough qualified tradespeople.
The result can be labour shortages, higher costs and greater reliance on workers recruited from overseas.
Labour proposes wider apprenticeship support
Labour is also proposing changes beyond its Māori-specific programme.
Its 2026 election platform includes an expansion of Apprenticeship Boost, including extending employer payments, adding five additional trades and providing a $1,000 toolbox grant.
The party says employer support would eventually extend across two years rather than the existing one-year arrangement.
That wider policy matters because Māori-led training can prepare people for employment, but there still needs to be an employer on the other side ready to offer the apprenticeship.
The two parts of the system have to work together.
Māori providers know their communities
The distinctive element of Labour’s $21 million proposal is putting greater control into Māori hands.
A programme operating in Te Tai Tokerau may need to respond to a different labour market from one operating in Taranaki, Tairāwhiti or Murihiku.
Iwi, marae and Māori providers can work directly with local businesses to identify where jobs are emerging and then design programmes around those opportunities.
They can also provide support extending beyond classroom learning.
Transport, whānau responsibilities, confidence, literacy, mentoring and navigating employment can all determine whether somebody completes training.
Labour’s argument is that kaupapa Māori providers understand those barriers and are often better placed to help whānau overcome them.
This is about more than getting a job
The economic potential extends further.
Every Māori electrician, builder, plumber, engineer, forestry worker or infrastructure specialist who qualifies has the potential to eventually become an employer themselves.
That creates a pathway from training to employment, employment to qualification, qualification to business ownership, and business ownership to intergenerational Māori economic development.
For rangatahi, seeing Māori businesses and qualified Māori tradespeople in their communities also changes what a career pathway looks like.
It makes the opportunity visible.
The 15-year warning
The apprenticeship numbers should therefore be treated as an economic warning.
New Zealand faces enormous long-term requirements across housing, water infrastructure, electricity networks, transport, renewable energy and climate resilience.
All of it requires people with practical skills.
Yet the pipeline producing those workers is shrinking.
Labour’s $21 million Māori-led proposal is one answer being put before voters.
Kingi’s challenge is ensuring investment translates into qualifications and sustainable mahi rather than simply another training scheme.
Because the real measure will not be the number of programmes created or dollars announced.
It will be whether a rangatahi Māori looking for their first opportunity can find an employer willing to open the door.
If Aotearoa wants thousands more skilled workers tomorrow, it has to start training — and employing — them today.
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