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Apprenticeship Boost is the main public payment available to a business that takes on an apprentice. Work and Income pays employers $500 a month per eligible apprentice, plus GST for registered employers, for a maximum of 12 months.
Two conditions decide eligibility. The apprentice must be less than 12 months into their apprenticeship, and must be enrolled in a qualification listed by the Tertiary Education Commission, the Crown agency that funds tertiary training. Employers must apply within 20 days of the apprentice starting; payments cannot be backdated.
The subsidy covers only part of what an apprentice costs. Employment New Zealand sets a training minimum wage of $19.16 an hour for apprentices aged 20 and over who must complete at least 60 industry training credits a year.
At 40 hours a week, that rate comes to $766.40 a week, or $39,852.80 across a year. A full 12 months of Boost payments is $6,000 before GST, which is about 15% of that annual wage cost. For a small operator, the payment offsets some of the supervision and lower-output time that comes with a learner, rather than covering the wage.
The scheme began in August 2020 as a COVID-19 support measure and originally ran for up to two years per apprentice. In October 2024, the Government confirmed that from 1 January 2025 it would fund first-year apprentices only, in targeted fields including building, agriculture, horticulture, and viticulture. Budget 2024 allocated $64.9 million over four years, and the Ministry of Education says that commitment holds until a review in 2027.
Ministry of Education figures show the scheme supported 41,435 learners in 2022, when second-year apprentices still qualified, and 9,905 in 2025. Counting first-year apprentices alone, the number fell from 29,320 to 8,670.
The total apprentice count has also dropped, though less sharply. Education Counts, the ministry’s statistics site, recorded 59,720 apprentices in 2025, down 14% on 2024, with new entrants down 24%. It remains the sixth-highest annual count since 2011.
The ministry attributes the decline to building activity, which fell rapidly in 2023 and 2024, and to the 2025 eligibility changes. It also points out that employers need enough work on hand to take learners on because learners produce less than other workers and training consumes employer resources.
Retention moved in the opposite direction. First-year retention rose from 66% to 71% in 2025, although the five-year completion rate fell three points to 40%.
The Government’s other significant trades decision came in Budget 2026. Final-year Fees Free is cancelled from the end of December 2026, and the savings lift Trades Academy places for secondary students from 10,000 to 20,000 over four years.
That shifts support earlier in the pipeline, towards school students, while leaving the employer subsidy at its current settings until the ministry’s 2027 review.
Labour would restore two-year funding, paying employers $500 a month for the first two years of an apprenticeship from 1 July 2028. From 1 July 2027 it would add five fields, among them road construction and water and sanitary engineering, along with a $1,000 toolbox grant for new apprentices and a mentoring pilot. Labour puts the package at $21 million in 2027/28, rising to $71.5 million in 2030/31.
National’s 47-point small business plan makes no changes to Apprenticeship Boost. It concentrates on administration instead, promising that digital competency records and electronic supervisor sign-off will be accepted consistently across apprenticeships.
The Greens would abolish the training wage, leaving the adult minimum of $23.95 an hour as the floor for apprentices aged 20 and over. They would also provide a $2,000 equipment grant to apprentices, pay employers a $2,000 completion bonus, and add $30 million a year for Māori and Pasifika-led training.
ACT’s small business package would freeze the adult minimum wage for three years and create a separate training wage, set at 60% of the adult minimum, for workers under 20 in their first 12 months with an employer.
No published apprenticeship funding policy was found from NZ First or Te Pāti Māori. The Ministry of Education’s review of the scheme is due in 2027.
For an employer weighing up a first-year hire, the practical questions are whether the trade is on the targeted list, whether the qualification is TEC-listed, and whether the paperwork can be lodged inside the 20-day window. Miss that window and the money is gone.
The wider picture is a smaller pipeline. With new entrants down 24% and five-year completions at 40%, the supply of qualified trades people is tightening at the same time as the subsidy is narrower. Employers who train now are competing for a smaller pool of experienced staff later.
Any change of government would alter the arithmetic. Labour’s two-year payment and expanded field list, the Greens’ higher wage floor and completion bonus, and ACT’s lower training wage for under-20s each move the cost of taking on a learner in different directions.
NZ Business News reports on the decisions, deals and numbers shaping New Zealand business — the companies making them, the policy and market conditions they work within, and what it means for the people running businesses here.