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Upcoming Events
Have you got your tickets for our first Calibrate event?
Make sure to RSVP here and we’ll be sure to save you a seat!
Growing Our Own will be a chance to learn how the team at Lyttleton Engineering have developed their people. Through their apprentice training programme they’ve developed qualified and experienced staff. Their success can be seen just by looking at their own senior leadership team, which including 5 Lyttleton Engineering apprentices, with two being company directors.
Our hosts will be Richard York – General Manager, Nick Jessop – Operation Manager, & Robbie Sutton – Apprentice Mentor.
You can expect to walk away with
- Connections with manufacturers facing similar workforce challenges.
- Practical ideas for developing and retaining skilled people within your business.
- Insights into how Lyttleton Engineering has built a successful “grow your own” culture.
- Real examples of apprentices progressing into leadership roles.
- Ideas for strengthening partnerships with schools, Ara, and industry.
Our next Fireside Chat on September 14 will have Roland Sommer as a guest speaker. Many of you will remember Roland as the GM of TE Connectivity and, subsequently, CEO of Argus Group. Now Roland has moved a big step closer to professionally pursuing his passion for flying objects as the Manufacturing Manager for SPS Automation. We’ll send out full invitations for the event next Monday, but now is a good day for marking the spot in your diary: Monday, Sep. 14, 5:30 p.m.
The Canterbury Manufacturers Trust and MAKE│NZ are pleased to present an opportunity for young leaders within Manufacturing.
A relaxed, networking evening for the next generation of Canterbury manufacturing leaders &
future leaders — Chatham House Rule applies.
No sales pitches. No bosses. Just your peers — talking shop, comparing notes, and learning from
each other.
This will take place on Thursday the 17th of September, 5:30pm to 7:30pm at Little Mex Bar, 131 Victoria Street. Any emerging leaders in manufacturing, aged 25-35, are welcome! Come as you are and we’ll see you there. To RSVP and find out more information, check the pdf below
News From The World of Manufacturing
•Ara Institute of Canterbury and the University of Canterbury (UC) have signed a Partnership Agreement (Memorandum of Understanding; MoU) that establishes pre-approved pathways for students to transition between Ara and UC qualifications, creating opportunities for a wider pool of talent. It is the first of its kind in New Zealand between a university and a polytechnic.
Initial arrangements will support students transferring from UC’s Engineering First Year into Ara’s Bachelor of Engineering Technology with cross-credit recognition. They will also provide a pathway for New Zealand Diploma in Engineering graduates to progress into UC’s Bachelor of Engineering with Honours.
This is a welcome first step on a path well-established already in other countries. In the UK, for example, universities allow students with a completed Advanced Apprenticeship (Level 3) to enrol for studies towards a bachelor’s degree. At the same time, many universities offer degree apprenticeships – like the University of Exeter, for example.
In 2024, the New Zealand government initiated a review of the country’s university system. Neither the final report from the review group, nor the Cabinet Paper that responded to its recommendations, contained any specific references to the need for vertical integration in New Zealand’s tertiary education system, specifically an integration between vocational and academic education, and transitions between the two.
The Ministry of Education’s Tertiary Education Strategy 2025-2030, subsequently released in December 2025, emphasises Access and Participation as one of its five priorities. However, it does not contain any specific recommendations when it comes to the vertical integration of vocational education, sticking to generic statements like “Make it easier for students and trainees to move between tertiary providers and between work-based and provider-based learning.”
When it comes to making a career in manufacturing more attractive, we already have many examples of ‘the sky’s the limit’ when it comes to progressing from entry as an apprentice to becoming a general manager or factory owner by sheer determination and hard work. That’s ‘facts on the ground’. What we need to complement that with is an education system that is equally ‘permissive’, not only allowing young people to enter the education system with a Level-2 apprenticeship with a prospect to finish up with a Ph.D. in Engineering, but encouraging them to aspire to achieve that.
Given the government’s apparent lack of interest in – let alone commitment to – removing the barriers that prevent a seamless progression from a completed apprenticeship to academia, all the more plaudits to Ara and the UC for making a start!
Other News of Interest to Manufacturing
• MBIE have announced an R&D Career Grant in which they’re looking to support businesses employing students to help with R&D. Applications close on the 31st of August 2026 so if this may be of help to you, make sure to investigate quick.
•We are all well familiar by now with ‘Made in China’. What we may encounter more often in future will be Made in Egypt, France, or Indonesia by companies wholly owned by Chinese investors:
n.b. 2013 was the year the Chinese Government officially launched its Belt & Road Initiative.
Looking at where these investments are happening, we see The Americas and Australasia hardly being in the picture, but a broad spread otherwise:
The above map is representing investments in manufacturing, services, high-tech, and logistics only. The online version is interactive, and querying it reveals the following details:
- The majority of these investments are private, but with the Chinese government not far behind as the investor
- Only six of the projects involve bilateral financing between the host country and Chinese investors
- The majority of host countries are members of the Belt & Road Initiative
- The majority of these projects are either operational, or under construction.
Looking at key destinations in more detail (completed FDI transactions only):
In terms of breakdown by category over time, and looking at completed FDI transactions only:
As these investments grow and become fully operational, one of the consequences will be changes in international supply chains. Gotion High Tech, in which the Volkswagen Group is the largest shareholder at 26%, is building an integrated lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery gigafactory in Morocco’s Rabat-Salé-Kénitra free trade zone with an initial capacity of 10 GWh annually, taking advantage of the country’s rich phosphate resources; the country holds roughly 70% of the world’s phosphate reserves. Morocco already hosts Renault and Stellantis assembly plants in Kénitra and Tangier, with the latter seeing a €1.2bn expansion investment in 2025.
Fun Facts (some of them not so funny)
•Last week we looked at youth unemployment in New Zealand and other countries in general terms. These days, the notion that AI is partly to blame, or at least “AI’s got something to do with it” is becoming more widely accepted. Fact or perception? The first problem when deciding on the answer is methodology. How does one establish whether young people were made redundant, or, more likely, failed to find employment in the first place, because of AI? Or, to be precise, because their labour was not / no longer required because the work in question can be done (better/cheaper) by artificial intelligence?
The method that is now widely being used is based on characterising different occupations using an AI Exposure measure, essentially assessing the size of the risk of the function(s) associated with a particular occupation can be taken over by AI. There is a fair bit of science behind these evaluations, but the basic concept is simple – the higher the proportion of non-repetitive complicated physical activity is involved in a particular job, the lower the risk of AI replacement. Think arborist vs accountant, or wind turbine technician vs wage and salary administrator.
There still aren’t many studies around that are based on large datasets, but a couple worth taking note of are painting similar pictures. The first one comes from economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (TX) and is based on an analysis of payroll data on 25 million workers from ADP, the largest payroll software provider in the U.S. Its results are shown in the two charts below:
In contrast to the AI effect in young labour market entrants look for their first job, job finding rates (re-employment rates) show no AI effect for those having previously been unemployed. Likewise, the study didn’t find any AI effect in lay-offs (redundancies).
The study concludes: “There appears to be lower employment for young workers in occupations with the most exposure to AI, but so far, the aggregate impacts are small and subtle. If all the decline in employment for the young, most AI-exposed workers translated into unemployment, it would be responsible for only a 0.1 percentage point rise in aggregate unemployment since November 2022.”
A study by the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, again based on ADP Data, takes a slightly different angle, looking a total employment by AI exposure measure and age:
Not surprisingly, and as already shown above, the impact of AI x Age on employment shows up more dramatically in occupations with a high AI exposure; in this case customer services representatives:
The graph for software developers shows a similar picture. Overall, the Stanford study concludes that: “Beyond extending the data through mid-2026, the revised paper provides new evidence about the mechanisms that may be driving these patterns.
One distinction that appears important is between codified and tacit knowledge. Employment has declined among young workers in occupations that rely heavily on codified knowledge: formal, standardized, documented knowledge that can be taught through education, textbooks, or written procedures. In contrast, employment has increased among experienced workers in occupations that rely more heavily on tacit knowledge acquired through practice, mentorship, and repeated exposure to real situations.”
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