The Careers Transport programme is helping NZ's transport industry build its future workforce
New Zealand’s commercial transport industry is facing a well-known challenge: attracting the next generation of people into the sector. With an ageing workforce and increasing demand for freight movement across the country, the industry must continue to find new and better ways to showcase the wide range of career opportunities available.
Developed under the Transport Well Charitable Trust, the Careers Transport Workforce Strategy is one of the key initiatives designed to address this challenge. Developed by the industry to strengthen workforce development and engagement with schools, the strategy focuses on creating clearer pathways into the transport sector while helping young people understand the variety of roles that exist beyond traditional driving careers.
An accessible web portal is under development. The portal is designed as a central hub of information for students, careers advisors, teachers, parents, and employers, providing an easy way to explore career pathways within the commercial transport and logistics industry.
While the wider Careers Transport programme is currently being trialled in Canterbury and South Canterbury, the web portal itself will be available nationally. This means anyone, anywhere in New Zealand, can begin exploring the opportunities that exist within the transport sector.
For many people outside the industry, the perception of transport careers has traditionally focused on driving. While driving remains an essential and rewarding profession, the reality is that the modern transport industry offers a far wider range of roles.
The Careers Transport portal has been designed to highlight exactly that.
Visitors to the portal can explore a broad range of career options that support the transport sector. These include roles in workshops and engineering, logistics and dispatch, compliance and safety, administration and management, parts and warehousing, technology and innovation, sales, and operations management.
By presenting these roles in a clear and engaging way, the portal helps young people understand that transport is not just one job, it is an entire ecosystem of careers that support the movement of goods across New Zealand.
Importantly, the portal also showcases career progression pathways. Students can see how someone might start in an entry-level role and progress through the industry into more specialised or leadership positions over time.
This visibility is particularly important for careers advisors and teachers who are helping students consider their future options. The transport industry offers stable, well-paid careers with real opportunities for advancement, but those pathways have not always been clearly visible outside the sector.
Another important component of the programme is the identification of industry-relevant micro-credentials that students can begin working toward while they are still at school. The Careers Transport programme has been working with industry training organisations to identify short, practical training modules that introduce students to real skills used in the transport sector.
These micro-credentials are designed to keep students engaged by providing practical learning experiences connected directly to real industry roles. At the same time, students can earn recognised credits for their work, giving them a sense of achievement while building skills that are relevant to future employment.
By allowing students to gain recognised learning while still at school, the programme helps bridge the gap between education and employment, making it easier for young people to see transport as a genuine career pathway rather than something they only discover after leaving school.
Alongside the digital portal, the Careers Transport programme itself is currently being trialled in Canterbury and South Canterbury. These pilot regions are working directly with schools, careers advisors, and local transport operators to create stronger connections between education and industry.
The trial programme focuses on providing practical exposure to the transport industry, helping students explore career options through industry engagement, workplace exposure, and employer involvement.
The intention is to refine and strengthen the programme through these regional trials before expanding it more broadly across New Zealand.
Even in regions where the full programme is not yet operating, the Careers Transport portal remains a valuable national resource. Careers advisors can use it as a teaching tool, students can explore potential career pathways, and employers can gain a better understanding of how the industry is presenting itself to the next generation.
For an industry that keeps the country moving, investing in future talent is essential.
The Careers Transport Workforce Strategy represents an important step toward ensuring the transport sector continues to attract skilled, motivated people who will support the industry into the future.
By combining digital tools like the portal with practical school engagement and industry-recognised micro-credentials, the initiative is helping reshape how the transport industry connects with young people and demonstrates the wide range of careers it offers.
The future workforce of the transport industry may be sitting in a classroom today — and the Careers Transport programme is helping them see the road ahead.
