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Mentoring the next generation for a good start
The University of Canterbury’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is currently searching for sponsors for the 2027 Final Year Projects.
This programme allows teams of final-year engineering students to work alongside industry partners, to gain real practical experience on a technical project (with requirements to elicit, milestones to deliver, and teamwork) in the fields of automation, electronics, energy systems, communications, embedded software, aerospace…
- Do you have a project you’ve been meaning to tackle but don’t have the bandwidth for?
- Do you have any new technologies that you would like to trial but no spare hands to try it?
- Do you want to be part of the upskilling of the future engineers?
- Are you keen to mentor or grow your staff to mentor a team?
For a sponsorship fee ($5,000) plus industry guidance and mentorship along the way, we can kick start a project. Any IP, prototypes, research at the end of the project are yours.
Here are a couple of past projects
For more information and a chat, please contact Nat (nathalie.giraudon@canterbury.ac.nz) and Jamie (jamie.gawith@canterbury.ac.nz)
News from the World of Manufacturing
•Last week we talked about the need to maintain a balanced approach between recruitment and retention when it comes to growing the ‘human capital’ for manufacturing in New Zealand. As far as the retention part is concerned and given the rapid pace of change in manufacturing processes and (digital) technologies, the question remains whether we are doing enough to keep our existing workforce current. “We” meaning both employers and the government-funded – or, as it were, poorly-funded – vocational education system.
Beyond the generic statement of need, can we quantify the level of demand for upskilling the existing workforce in manufacturing? Again, the only source of data comes from the Hanga-Aro-Rau / Deloitte study published in December 2025. The report identifies two key technical skills gaps in the manufacturing workforce – AI and Big Data, and Technological Literacy – and eight key soft (‘human centric’) skills:
- Resilience, flexibility, and agility
- Creative thinking
- Analytical thinking
- Leadership and social influence
- Talent management
- Motivation and self-awareness
- Curiosity and lifelong learning
- System thinking
Not all of these soft skills will be equally important to jobs at all levels in manufacturing operations.
It then goes on to list the impediments to bringing different sector entrant groups up to the skills levels required in the near future. Just as a reminder, these are the seven pools from which new entrants into the workforce are recruited:
For the upskilling of Industry Changers and the exiting workforce, the study identifies the following challenges:
From our own experience, having funded the development of two microcredentials (Digital Skills for Manufacturing; NZQCF 4341 and Digital Systems for Productivity Improvement in Manufacturing; 5011), we can attest to having encountered most of these – from a lack of suitably qualified trainers to challenges dealing with the NZQA.
Beyond these qualitative challenges, what do the numbers say?
A clear shift towards higher qualifications, especially the growth at Level 1.
In terms of the relevance of particular skills, the report lists predicted changes over the next five years:
It also records actual changes in demand for different types of manufacturing occupations over the period 2018 to 2023:
Note the major increases in some categories requiring high skills levels; interesting to note that the four biggest categories in terms of absolute numbers increasing all have “Other” in their label.
One might surmise that at least some of these include new types of jobs.
•We mentioned above a lack of government support for the delivery of training / upskilling for those already in work above. Microcredentials were introduced as a key pathway to deliver that training. When government support for microcredentials was announced in the 2020 Budget, the then-Minister of Education, Chris Hipkins, said this: “The Government believes micro-credentials will be increasingly important … They are a big step forward in helping learners, employers and businesses keep pace with the changing demands of a modern workplace, allowing the education and training system to respond flexibly and innovatively to fast-paced social, economic and technological change.”
Thus, the concept was clear – support for lifelong learning for those already in work – and the right words were spoken.
And the results after six years?
A total of 2,840 learners successfully completed an industry (Manufacturing & Engineering)-related microcredential training; 40% of those in Automotive Engineering and Technology alone. We don’t know how many of those were employed in industry at the time of their training, nor do we know how many learners completed more than one unit. But if we assume that each learner was unique, and that all of them were in employment while undergoing the training, that would constitute roughly 0.01% of the total industry workforce being upskilled that way over six years.
There isn’t a single reason for the lack of uptake of microcredentials. And the poor uptake isn’t restricted to the board category of Engineering and Related Technologies. Across all Fields of Study, and as an average over the past six years, 4,528 learners per year successfully completed a microcredential.
A lack of government funding will most certainly have been a contributing factor. As the TEC says “We are currently operating in a tight fiscal environment …Not all quality assured micro-credentials can be funded. Our focus is on funding micro-credentials by high performing TEOs that meet industry and community need, have clear employment outcomes, and support students and trainees to upskill. We expect employers, industries and learners to cover the full cost of micro-credentials we do not fund.”
Fun Facts (some of them not so funny)
•Each year the World Intellectual Property Organisation [WIPO], a United Nations agency, publishes its Global Innovation Index [GII], comprised of roughly 80 indicators, grouped into innovation inputs and outputs.
Here is where New Zealand fits in, back on Rank 24, last held in 2022, and after dipping lower in between now and then:
Here are the results for New Zealand for some of the key indicators used by the WIPO:
Not exactly the picture we want to see – more R&D investment, and more publications, but fewer venture capital deals and fewer patent filings …
On the other hand, one could be forgiven for thinking that in terms of VC investment at least, whatever happens in our part of the world pales into insignificance compared to the situation in North America:
Given the persistence of the North American dominance over the past 25 years, explaining that away by the recent ‘AI investment boom’ doesn’t really work.
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