Without the appropriate skills and expertise, we will struggle to deliver the new infrastructure we need to support our growing economy and climate change responsibilities.
We need to ensure there is a steady supply of skilled professionals through improved immigration policies and education pipelines – it’s estimated New Zealand needs between 1,500 and 2,300 additional engineers each year to meet industry demands and support ongoing economic growth.
We’re facing numerous challenges in ensuring sufficient numbers of trained professionals are coming through our education system and retaining people in the industry once they’re qualified. Data collected through the quarterly ACE New Zealand How’s business? surveys showed that hundreds of people left firms in 2024 due to redundancies, jobs overseas or other opportunities. In 2025, there has been a significant reduction in graduate recruitment, with 57% of firms reporting in March that they were recruiting fewer or no graduates compared to the previous year.
Investing in our education system
Investing in our education system to better support STEM programmes at primary school, as well as increasing the intakes for our engineering and surveying schools and apprenticeship and training programmes.
Reviewing immigration settings
Reviewing immigration settings to provide more certainty for the intermediate and long term, as well as an easier and more efficient system to streamline the process of recruiting and attracting talent from overseas.
Long-term Skills Shortage Action Plan
In collaboration with Engineering New Zealand and Waihanga Ara Rau, we published a report on the key issues impacting the pipeline of engineers. This report sets out the work already being done, where there are gaps and the priority areas to help address these challenges.
Immigration and education pipeline
We advocate to improve immigration policies and the education pipeline to ensure a steady supply of skilled professionals for the industry.
Retain talent
We focus on retaining the talent in the sector through:
Future of work
Supporting ACE members to understand the future of work and future workforce.
