Nobody loves a tradie more than a politician in election year. Labour announced it would reset the apprenticeship boost scheme back to two years from 2028 if come the glorious day they became the next government. Labour leader Chris Hipkins announced the election policy to the party faithful at Labour's congress as they call it in election year in Wellington over the weekend.

There are so many young New Zealanders who would love to get into the trades and are just desperate for the opportunity to do that. And we've got a lot of feedback from those employers who would love to take on an apprentice but they just need a bit more financial support to be able to do that.

And they'll get it if Labour becomes the government with the Greens and Te Pāti Māori and maybe TOP. It's a hangover from COVID. The scheme started in 2020 Employers were paid $500 a month for one year to take on apprentices, helping pay for things like wages and ensuring apprentices can keep earning while they're training. In 2025 the scheme was pegged back by the coalition government from a two year subsidy to instead focus on first year apprentices in targeted occupations.

At the time, the government said targeting the scheme would ensure the skills and qualifications people were getting were in sync with what the country needed. Labour's scheme would see the 2020 we're back to the future with 2020 reinstated. It would be a two year subsidy and the trades that would qualify would also be expanded to include road construction, water treatment, and hairdressing. Hipkins later told media that Labour had deliberately sought to expand the scheme to more industries that employed more women. Pollys love a tradie. 

Remember in 1999 you may not, but perhaps your employer does, Helen Clark campaigned on apprenticeships. Labour introduced legislation for a modern apprenticeship programme which would provide better opportunities for New Zealanders to gain national qualifications through work based training. So that was a big platform plank of Labour's policies going into the 1999 election.

In 2013 then Prime Minister John Key promised cash incentives to encourage people to take up apprenticeships as of election year 2014 Modern apprenticeships and other apprenticeship type training would be combined under a new scheme called New Zealand Apprenticeships. The overall subsidy payments to the scheme would be increased by 12 million in the first year, that would rise over time.

And then along came Labour's COVID scheme which the coalition government kept kind of but tinkered with. And now here we are with another election in a few months and yet again the tradies are being wooed. Are you wooable? Is this the sort of thing your business needs to take on more apprentices? Of all the schemes that have been dangled before you, that have been offered, that have been introduced and then tinkered with and then merged into one and then separated and then, times two divide by three, carry the four and plus five. Which scheme has worked the best for you?

When it comes to taking on apprentices, training them up, having the time and the opportunity and the readies to be able to take on apprentices, which apprenticeship scheme has worked the best for you? Of all the many, and I only went back 27 years, has a government scheme made a difference to your business being able to take on apprentices or does it very much depend on the economic climate of the day rather than any kind of government?

Surely a subsidy of $500 a month for a year would help because taking on apprentices does take time. You get a few prancing unicorns that come into your workshop or to your salon or to your work gang who are brilliant, who are meant to be doing the job, who understand it instinctively, who turn up on time. They're amazing and we get a few of those here.

But the rest of us, and I include myself in that, aren't much use for a couple of years. We make mistakes, we learn from them, we cost you money, you roll your eyes, you manage not to kick our bums and in the end we come right and we're worth something to you. It takes time, it takes dedication, it takes the right temperament to take on apprentices.

Is this COVID 2.0 scheme that Labour has announced, the apprenticeship boost scheme, is that going to make a difference to you in terms of taking on apprentices? Is there a government scheme over the last 27 years that's worked best for you or is it pretty much up to the economic climate of the time as to whether you can take on apprentices or not? 

LISTEN ABOVE