Apprenticeship Boost

It means apprentices can keep earning and training towards their qualifications as the economy recovers from the impacts of COVID-19. The payment is made directly to employers.

Who can get it

You can get Apprenticeship Boost if your apprentices are enrolled in and engaged in an apprenticeship programme approved and funded by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). An apprenticeship programme is either a New Zealand Apprenticeship or a Managed Apprenticeship.

These apprenticeship programmes are provided by:

• a Transitional Industry Training Organisation (ITO), or
• Te Pūkenga - New Zealand Institute of Skills Technology or one of its subsidiaries, or
• a Wānanga, or
• a registered Private Training Establishment.

Also, to be eligible, an apprentice must not have completed more than 24 months of their apprenticeship and not had their enrolment withdrawn or put on hold.

Apprenticeship Boost can be paid for an apprentice who is employed by you, or self-employed if contracted by you.

You need to apply for your apprentice, and you need to have a training agreement between yourself, your apprentice and your TEC approved Transitional ITO or provider.

Our system will automatically assess whether your apprentice is eligible based on information from TEC.

If you're self-employed, contact the company overseeing your apprenticeship. They'll (the company overseeing your apprenticeship) need to apply on your behalf.

You can't get Apprenticeship Boost for your apprentice if you're:

• a State Sector employer
• already getting another wage subsidy from us for this apprentice (including Flexi-wage, Mana in Mahi or Māori Trades and Training Fund)
• already getting a payment from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment for this apprentice from the or a Regional Apprenticeships Initiative.

Payment rates

You can get Apprenticeship Boost for a maximum of 24 months per apprentice until the initiative ends in December 2023. It's paid monthly in advance from the date you apply, so you should apply as soon as you can once your apprentice has started training.

How much you can get depends on whether your apprentice is in their first or second year of training:

• First year apprentices can get $1,000 a month
• Second year apprentices can get $500 a month.

Payment periods that start on or after 5 August 2022 will be paid at the new rate of $500 for all apprentices, regardless of whether they are in their first or second year of training. This includes first year apprentices who are already registered and have been receiving $1,000 payments before that date.

These amounts don't include GST. If you're GST registered, you'll be paid the amount plus GST.

Our system will automatically assess your apprentice's payment rate based on information from TEC.

You must pay your apprentice at least the minimum, starting out, or training wage.

Which year of training your apprentice is in

If your apprentice has been previously enrolled in any other apprenticeship with the same or similar content, this will be counted towards their training provided by TEC. Apprenticeships are the same or similar if they create transferable technical skills relevant to an occupation.

For example: In 2020 your apprentice completed a 12-month barbering course with HITO. In 2021 your apprentice also started a hairdressing course, also with HITO. If you apply for Apprenticeship Boost, you would be eligible to get $500 per month, as your apprentice is in their 2nd year of training.

How to apply for your first payment

Find out how to apply for your first month's Apprenticeship Boost payment.

How to apply for monthly payments

You'll need to reconfirm each month so we can check you're still eligible for this payment.

Apprenticeship Boost invoices

You can log back into your account at any time to view your GST invoice. You can also save this as a PDF.

How to save a PDF from your account:

If you're using Chrome

1. Select the 'Payments' tab
2. Scroll down the page to 'Payment Periods'
3. Select the invoice you want
4. Select 'Print'
5. Find the 'Destination' section and select the down arrow to open the list under it
6. Select 'Save as PDF'
7. Select 'Save'.

If you're using Internet Explorer

1. Select the 'Payments' tab
2. Scroll down the page to 'Payment Periods'
3. Select the invoice you want
4. Select 'Print'
5. Select 'Microsoft Print to PDF'
6. Select 'Print'
7. Write the name you want to save your invoice as
8. Select 'Save as PDF'.

Your obligations

To receive Apprenticeship Boost payments, you must agree to the terms outlined in the Apprenticeship Boost Declaration. You'll need to reconfirm each month that you are still employing your apprentice(s), they're still in training and they still consent to their information being shared.

The Apprenticeship Boost Declaration was updated on 1 August 2021 to reflect that payments are available until 4 August 2022 and the technical legislative changes that have occurred as part of the Reform of Vocational Education.

If you applied before 1 August 2021, you will have agreed to an earlier version of this declaration. You can read this version here:

Information for apprentices

If you are an apprentice and your employer has claimed Apprenticeship Boost for you, you can ask for a copy of any information about you that has been supplied to us. You can request this by email at Apprenticeship_Boost@msd.govt.nz or by calling us on 0800 673 227.