Competitions
WorldSkills New Zealand has been promoting and benchmarking skills excellence and championing vocational skill competitions since 1986.
Young people in training, business and industry sectors, education and training providers, all benefit from skill competitions.
For 2025, our skill competition focus is on our WorldSkills National Aircraft Competition and partnering with The Institute of Refrigeration Heating & Air Conditioning Engineers of New Zealand Inc (IRHACE) Wallie Askew Workskills Competition.
WorldSkills New Zealand National Aircraft Competition
The National Aircraft Maintenance Competition will take place at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand at Wigram, Christchurch, on 3–4 November. Aircraft engineers and aircraft engineers-in-training from RNZAF, Air NZ, AirBus and HeliSupport New Zealand will compete for the opportunity to represent New Zealand at the WorldSkills International Aircraft Maintenance Competition in Lyon next year. Check out the Aircraft Maintenance skill on the WorldSkills International page.
Master Electricians Competition
The Master Electricians Apprentice Challenge is an annual competition held across 13 regional centres in New Zealand to find New Zealand’s best electrical apprentices across the domestic/commercial and industrial sectors. The highest placed eligible competitors may be invited to represent New Zealand at the respective WorldSkills International Electrical Competition in Lyon next year. Visit here for the WorldSkills International skills; Domestic/Commercial equates to Electrical Installations, and Industrial equates to Industrial Control.
IRHACE Competition
The Wallie Askew Workskills competition is the industry’s premier skill competition for young apprentices to compete across Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration disciplines. The highest placed eligible National finalists may be invited to represent New Zealand at the WorldSkills International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Competition in Lyon next year. Visit here for more information on this skill at the WorldSkills International website.
WorldSkills International
France is hosting the 47th WorldSkills Competition in Lyon in September 2024. The competition is expected to attract over 1500 competitors from 70 plus nations to benchmark their professional abilities in more than 60 skills.
WorldSkills New Zealand is preparing to re-engage the global competition and send a small national team to compete for the first time since 2019 event held in Kazan, Russia.