New Zealand’s vocational education and training system is an important part of tertiary education with a strong focus on delivering the skills employers and industry need. We talk to Philip Aldridge, Chief Executive of the new Energy and Infrastructure Industry Skills Board (ISB), about how ACE members can engage with the new boards to ensure the system works to meet industry needs.
Tell us about the Energy and Infrastructure Industry Skills Board (ISB) – what sectors do you cover and what exactly do you do?
The Energy and Infrastructure Industry Skills Board is one of eight ISBs established at the start of 2026 to ensure New Zealand’s vocational education system is aligned with industry’s real capability needs.
We work across electricity, gas, water, civil infrastructure and extractives. These sectors are fundamental to how our country functions and grows.
In practical terms, our role is to connect what industry needs with how qualifications and credentials are designed and delivered. We work with employers, professional bodies and providers to make sure the system produces people who are ready to contribute safely and productively from day one.
We develop and maintain standards and qualifications, provide advice to the Government on workforce needs, and help ensure the education system reflects how work is actually carried out in practice.
Our focus is simple. We want a system that produces capable people, supports business performance, and strengthens the long-term resilience of New Zealand’s infrastructure and energy networks.
How will the work you do benefit the infrastructure sector?
Consulting engineers play a critical role in shaping and delivering infrastructure projects, and the wider workforce supporting that work needs the right capabilities in place.
When skill gaps exist, the impacts are felt quickly through reduced productivity, increased supervision requirements, or challenges scaling delivery teams when project pipelines increase.
Our role is to strengthen the pipeline of capable people supporting engineering and infrastructure businesses, including technicians, technologists and work-ready graduates. We want qualifications and credentials to better reflect real project environments, modern technologies, and the practical expectations placed on early-career professionals.
A more responsive, better-aligned system helps consulting firms grow their capabilities more efficiently and reduces the time spent addressing foundational skill gaps. This contributes to more productive businesses and stronger project outcomes.
How do you work with business leaders to make sure the qualifications available are fit for the future?
We work directly with employers, industry associations and professional bodies, including ACE New Zealand, to ensure qualifications reflect current and emerging practice.
That means understanding how work is evolving, what technical and non-technical capabilities are becoming more important, and where the system may not be keeping pace with industry expectations.
We look at the full picture, including how people transition into the workforce, how work-based learning supports capability development, and how qualifications support progression across a career.
Industry insight is critical. Employers and sector leaders help us test whether credentials reflect real work, real risk and real responsibility. This includes ensuring that areas such as communication, judgement, systems thinking and collaboration are recognised alongside technical capability.
By working closely with industry, we help ensure the system develops people who can contribute effectively to complex project environments.
This aligns closely with the Engineering Workforce Longterm Skills Shortage Action Plan, which ACE helped develop. That plan rightly shifts the focus from “how many students?” to who stays, progresses and delivers value in the profession.
What will we see from the Energy and Infrastructure ISB throughout 2026?
Our focus for 2026 is on strengthening alignment between industry needs and the vocational education system, while maintaining continuity and stability.
You will see us working closely with industry to identify priority capability needs, reviewing a range of qualifications across the energy and infrastructure sectors, and supporting clearer pathways into technical and specialist roles.
This year, we’ll be reviewing qualifications in civil infrastructure – civil works, civil engineering laboratory, road marking and infrastructure management spaces, including procurement, contract management and projects.
We’re also working alongside sector partners on workforce initiatives such as Re-Energise 26 and the Engineering Workforce Action Plan, helping ensure workforce planning, qualifications and investment signals are working in a co-ordinated way.
Importantly, we’re focused on making it easier for industry to engage with and influence the system. Our Industry Advisory Groups and Technical Advisory Groups provide practical channels for businesses and sector experts to contribute their insights and help shape future direction.
Our goal is not to duplicate the work of industry bodies like ACE, but to ensure industry insight translates into practical changes that improve workforce capability over time.
How can business leaders support your work?
The most valuable contribution industry can make is to share insight into what is changing and where capability gaps are emerging.
This might include providing feedback on draft qualifications, identifying where current credentials do not fully reflect operational realities, or highlighting areas where future capability will be needed.
Participation in advisory groups, consultation processes and targeted engagement activities helps ensure industry perspectives are reflected in the system.
ACE plays an important role in bringing together engineering expertise and sector insight, and working together helps ensure a more co-ordinated and consistent industry voice.
The more clearly, we understand what industry needs, the more effectively we can support a system that delivers the right capabilities at the right time.
What’s one thing you want infrastructure leaders to know about the new ISB?
The Energy and Infrastructure ISB exists to ensure industry has a stronger and more direct influence on how vocational education supports workforce capability.
We are industry-led, and our role is to help align the education system, government investment, and industry needs so New Zealand has the capability required to deliver and maintain critical infrastructure.
Workforce capability challenges are long-term and system-wide. Addressing them requires sustained collaboration between industry, education providers and government.
Our role is to be a practical partner in that process, helping ensure the system is responsive, connected to industry, and focused on supporting productivity, resilience and sustainable growth across the energy and infrastructure sectors.
The Engineering Workforce Action Plan makes it clear: this is a long-term, systemic issue. The Energy and Infrastructure ISB is here to be a practical delivery partner, not another layer of bureaucracy.
We look forward to working with you.
- To find out more about the Energy and Infrastructure ISB and how to get in touch, visit the website and follow it on LinkedIn.
