2025 Aircraft Maintenance Competition
Visit us in Christchurch at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand on 7 and 8 November to experience what happens when vocational education and competition come together.
Our upcoming skill competition of 2025 is our WorldSkills New Zealand Aircraft Maintenance Competition – a shining light of WorldSkills New Zealand and industry collaboration.
Our National Aircraft Maintenance Competition will take place at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand at Wigram, Christchurch, on 7–8 November.
This is a free public event, Schools, whānau and industry groups are welcome to attend (public opening times) on Friday and Saturday.
We are grateful to the following organisations:
Our event sponsor: Service IQ
Venue host: Airforce Museum of NZ
Supporters: AEANZ, Airbus NZ, Air NZ, NMIT, NZDF, and RNZAF.
[Picture] Aircraft engineers and engineers-in-training stand in front of a Mitsubishi MU2 training aircraft for the WorldSkills NZ 2023 national selection competition briefing at the RNZAF Technical Training School at Woodbourne in Blenheim.
Our New Zealand Aircraft Maintenance Competitions are intense high-energy events.
They are avenues for:
- Skill promotion and recruitment
- Industry-specific skill development
- Industry benchmarking
- Resilient sector-building.
[Picture] Teone Wilkinson from No 6 Squadron RNZAF riveting together pieces of his aircraft structure repair module at the WorldSkills NZ national selection competition, RNZAF Woodbourne 2023
Introducing our nine competitors for the 2025 National WorldSkills New Zealand Aircraft Maintenance Competition:
- Ashely Sturgess (22) NMIT
- Ethan Hedge (24) Air NZ Christchurch
- Jack Elvy (24) Air NZ Christchurch
- Joshua Kuriger (21) RNZAF
- Kaleb Bentham (23) Air NZ Auckland
- Liam Henderson (23) NMIT
- Michael La Rooy (19) NMIT
- Tim Duncan (24) Self employed
- William Swarbrick (22) Air NZ Auckland
WorldSkills NZ Aircraft Maintenance National Final 2025 Competitor Bios
Our competitions require a consistent high calibre of testing and judging. Modules are designed by our WorldSkills Aircraft Maintenance Skill Manager Michael Naus to meet NZ industry and international competition standards. Aircraft Maintenance Competition modules are authentic simulations of real-world activity. They demand technical expertise, attention to detail, decision-making and the ability to work under pressure.
Our competitors are young engineers and engineers-in-training. In preparation for competition, each must hone hard technical skills and soft skills. In recent years, many age-eligible Aircraft Maintenance national winners have gone on to compete and excel on the international stage.
New Zealand’s skills success is not just seen on the international podium. These competitions bring together experience and perspective. Competitors, supporters, industry and trainers come from provincial and urban centres and work across civilian organisations as well as the armed forces. Aircraft engineers and aircraft engineers-in-training from RNZAF, Air NZ, and general aviation attend. Our judges are practising engineers and engineering trainers from Airbus NZ, RNZAF, Air NZ, NMIT and Service IQ.