Welcome to WorldSkills New Zealand

Home of vocational skill competitions and much more

WorldSkills New Zealand is an independent, non-profit charitable trust founded in 1986, dedicated to encouraging excellence in vocational skills. Many people know WorldSkills for its competitions. This is just one part of what we do. We focus on competitions and the promotion and development of vocational skills and occupations throughout New Zealand.

Aircraft Maintenance and Refrigeration and
Air Conditioning Competitions 2025

The WorldSkills NZ Aircraft Maintenance Selection Competition was held on 30 August at Woodbourne Air Force Base, Blenheim. The National Final is being held in Christchurch at the Air Force Museum on Friday the 7th and Saturday the 8th of November. See here for details.

WorldSkills NZ is again linking with IRHACE and the Wallie Askew Memorial Work Skills competition. The national competition takes place in Palmerston North on the 17th and 18th of October, visit here for event information.

What’s happening for WSNZ in 2025?

For the last five or so years, New Zealand’s Vocational Education and Training (VET) system has been enduring ongoing change. From the previous Government’s Reform of Vocational Education (ROVE) to the current Government’s VET Redesign.

This continuing focus on how to set up and establish the new system has created a distraction from seeking innovation and excellence with New Zealand Vocational, Education and Training outcomes.

The WorldSkills international community is made up of 89 member countries, whose mission is to raise the profile and recognition of skilled people and show how important skills are in achieving economic growth and personal success. As a member of this movement, WorldSkills New Zealand is passionate in supporting better outcomes for New Zealand VET. As the new VET foundation is being developed, WorldSkills New Zealand seeks to confirm how we can fit into the new system. This uncertainty has impacted our reach, and funding.

A key component of what we do, Skill competitions are a catalyst for excellence and skill development, therefore our ability to run more skill competitions as well as partner with new industries to support their skill competitions is restricted.

For 2025 we have continued to build on 2024 successes by running the Aircraft Maintenance skill competition and partnering with IRHACE with their Wallie Askew Workskills Memorial Competition. With our limited resources, we are focusing on quality over quantity.

Once the new VET System has been confirmed and our place within it, we are hopeful that we will quickly be able to ramp up our contribution of innovation and excellence to New Zealand VET.

Thankyou for your ongoing interest and support, we really appreciate it.