The shortage of skilled workers in New Zealand’s construction and manufacturing sectors is a persistent problem, and the conventional response — advertising, recruiting, repeating — is not solving it. One Canterbury company has been taking a different approach for more than three decades, and the results speak for themselves.
Sutton Tools, a Canterbury-based engineering exporter that manufactures cutting tools for industrial markets, has maintained a long-running partnership with industry training organisation Competenz. The company trains its own workforce through apprenticeships, building the specific skills it needs while creating the kind of tenure and loyalty that recruited staff rarely replicate.
What the Numbers Show
Production Manager Brian McCallum has been with Sutton Tools for nearly 25 years. Plant Manager Glenn Morgan has been there for 32. These are not unusual tenures for a company that invests in people from the beginning of their careers. When a business trains someone and gives them a pathway, they tend to stay.
The partnership with Competenz has delivered hundreds of qualified tradespeople over its three-decade span. For a company that exports precision cutting tools and depends on consistently high quality, having a workforce trained to its specific standards — rather than to generic industry minimums — is a genuine competitive advantage.
Training Through Adversity
The commitment to training has been tested. A factory fire in 2022 forced a complete facility relocation to a new site in Rangiora, a disruption that would have strained any workforce. The fact that Sutton Tools came through that period with its operational capacity intact reflects the depth of experience and engagement in its team — something that was not built overnight and could not have been quickly replaced from the external labour market.
The Lesson for Other Businesses
The labour market for skilled trades in construction and engineering is unlikely to become easier in the near term. The workforce is ageing, the pipeline of new entrants is constrained, and competition for experienced staff is intense. Businesses that wait for the market to supply the skills they need are likely to keep waiting.
Investing in apprenticeship and on-the-job training — even when the return takes several years to materialise — builds a workforce asset that the market cannot easily replicate or poach. The Sutton Tools model is a long-term play, and the 30-year track record suggests it is the right one.
Explore more training and workforce development insights from New Zealand’s construction and manufacturing sectors, or connect with industry training organisations active in your region.
