About Grid Skills

Providing a qualified and competent workforce that meets current and future transmission industry needs.

Maintaining the National Grid requires a particular set of skills encompassing engineering, technology, communication, and strategy. Transpower’s Grid Skills is a registered Private Training Establishment providing new training and professional development for our service providers. 

Over 2,000 staff from more than 100 Service Providers take part in Grid Skills training annually. Grid Skills provides more than 50 courses across Substations and Lines learning pathways. Participants can also work towards the Certificate in Electricity Supply (Substation Maintenance) NZQA Level 4 qualification by completing the Grid Skills’ Substation Maintainer Core training programme. We also run Electricity Workers Registration Board-approved programmes. 

Transpower has been granted registration as a Private Training Establishment by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, under section 346 of the Education and Training Act 2020. 

The Grid Skills Governance Committee has oversight of Grid Skills. We work closely with industry subject matter experts to ensure the relevance and accuracy of our training offerings. 

Find out more about our training courses at the Grid Skills Information Portal:

Grid Skills Information Portal

Supporting learners 

We have produced a handy guide for our learners to guide and support their training at Grid Skills. You can access this any time by clicking here: Grid Skills Learner Handbook

Grid Skills aims to provide a safe and supportive learning environment for our diverse range of learners. Pastoral care is a provision that Grid Skills makes to ensure the physical and emotional welfare of our learners. This focuses on fostering learning environments that are designed to support positive learning experiences across diverse learner groups. We regularly review how we can better support our learners regarding pastoral care and report this to NZQA. Click here for our latest self-review document: Tertiary & International Learners Code of Practice: Self Review October 2024


Training Schedule

Click here to view our training schedule guide. This guide displays available sessions and is updated every Monday. Please note: The next training schedule update will be 13th January 2025. Also note that session seats are indicative only and may change at any time. Where the session seats are full and you need training support, please email [email protected].

For the most up-to-date information, please visit MySkills.

Important: You will still need to register learners through MySkills.


Grid Skills Trainee Travel & Accommodation Allowance

Click here to access the current Travel & Accommodation Guidelines (link coming)

Click here for the updated calculation sheet

Please contact [email protected] if you have any questions.


Recognition of Credit or Learning (RCL)

Recognition of Credit or Learning (RCL) is a process that recognises and gives credit for significant current industry knowledge, skills, qualifications, and experience that may have already been gained in New Zealand or overseas.

For credit to be granted, current, valid, authentic and verifiable evidence of skills and/or knowledge must be provided. Evidence must be relevant to and at the level of the course.

Evidence towards programme learning outcomes can be provided in several ways, examples may include:

  • Other qualifications
  • Current experience
  • Challenge tests/practical observations

If any knowledge or skill gaps are identified during the assessment process, a completion pathway will be provided outlining how those gaps will be addressed. This may involve gaining further experience or completing some Grid Skills training.

The process is unique to each individual and their existing skills and qualifications. Please complete this application form to see if Recognition of Credit or Learning might be a suitable option for you.

Application Form for Recognition of Prior Credit or Learning

Please note that we do not guarantee that any applications for RCL will automatically be successful.

We are happy to provide guidance, please email [email protected] 


Forms, documents and policies

Below you can find links to commonly used Grid Skills forms, useful documents and our policies and procedures. If you have any questions, please get in contact

Standards of conduct

Ngā ākonga (learners) are expected to conform to the standards of conduct required by their employer and Transpower at all times while attending Grid Skills training courses. The standards of conduct can be found in the Learner Handbook.

Forms

New learner form

Technical expert forms

Appeal of assessment result form

Request for extension to assessment due date

Application for recognition of prior learning (see RPL section above)

Documents

Reviewing the pool of Technical Experts

Information on Grid Skills policy for reporting credits to NZQA

Policies and procedures

Grid Skills has policies and procedures to help address any concerns or complaints you have as quickly as possible. If something is interfering with a person’s learning, we want to know so we can do something about it. 

Concerns & Complaints

Learners are encouraged to talk to their trainer (or Grid Skills directly) to see if the matter can be resolved before submitting a Formal Complaint. If you'd like to give us feedback outside of the complaints process, please email [email protected]

Before you lodge a complaint, have a conversation.

The best way to settle differences is to have a conversation first, to see if all parties can come to an agreed outcome. If you haven’t yet tried to raise your concern or complaint informally, take these steps.

Step 1 (Talk to the trainer):  
Talk to the trainer if your concern or complaint is about a course you have just taken.  If you do not feel comfortable talking to your trainer, or if you do not agree with their response, contact the Grid Skills team at [email protected].

Step 2 (Contact Grid Skills):
Contact us and ask to speak with someone.  
Email us on [email protected] or call 06 3570919.  
State that you want to raise a concern or complaint. Leave your name and contact number and the best time to call.  We will contact you and try to resolve the matter. If you are not satisfied with the outcome, we invite you to make a formal complaint.

Step 3 (Make a formal complaint):
Use this form to formally raise a concern or complaint. You can raise a complaint as an individual or as a group of learners.
• We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint, via email, within two working days.
• We will talk with you about the matter (you can have a support person present), decide what action to take, and inform you of the outcome, in writing, within an agreed timeframe. 

If you'd like to lodge a formal complaint, you can fill out our Concerns and complaint form.

Grid Skills has policies and procedures that govern how we respond to concerns and complaints to address any concerns or complaints effectively and efficiently. The Grid Skills Complaints Policy can be viewed in the Policies and procedures section of this page.

Disputes

If you do not agree with the outcome or believe Grid Skills did not adequately investigate the matter, you may take your complaint to external bodies. Grid Skills must provide you with the information you need to make an external appeal. The independent, free external dispute resolution scheme is available to help resolve disputes if they have been unable to resolve them through our internal complaints processes. Click here for more information.