Who we fund and who we don’t

The fund is available to benefit the workforces listed below. Peak bodies for these sectors are also listed.

Applicants either need to be from organisations working within the eight industries; or have the support of these sectors. We fund initiatives by these industries for these workforces.   

Entities that can apply for funding include registered charities, companies, incorporated societies, charitable trusts, maraes, rūnanga or other Māori authorities. Central or local Government, Te Pūkenga and workforce development councils cannot apply. However, they can be involved in a project seeking funds in a support or specialist capacity.

What we fund and what we don’t

Projects must deliver benefits to as many workers within a sector/industry as possible - across employers. Projects benefitting one workplace or company, or a limited group of employers will not be supported. It could be that an innovative initiative is piloted in a workplace to generate learnings for the wider workforce. Fund recipients will need to take an open approach to sharing the details of their projects and the outcomes.

Initiatives need to be completed within the next three years or be sustainable beyond that, given the short life of the fund. If a project is for a longer time frame, you will need to demonstrate how you will fund its out years.

    • Vocational training, workforce development and education

    • Best practice and continuous improvement in services

    • Attracting people to work in the sectors and workforce retention

    We prioritise projects that:

    • Deliver sector wide or multi-industry benefit

    • Positively impact workers who are:

      • Māori;

      • Pacific;

      • Disabled.

    • Research only projects (we will fund projects that have research as one component)

    • Work already undertaken

    • Ongoing service delivery or business as usual activity

    • Projects benefitting one organisation/workplace or a limited group of employers

    • Applications that do not specify clear outcomes that will benefit relevant sectors

    • Projects that could be considered a core government response or function, and

    • Projects without demonstrated wide industry support

After checking whether applications meet the basic eligibility requirements, they will be assessed against set criteria. We recommend you read these to help decide whether to apply; and what information to include.

How we’ll choose what to fund

  • Innovation

    • Strong application – Demonstrates a groundbreaking approach that will significantly advance current practice.

    • Weak application – Mostly replicates existing practice.

    Scale of impact

    • Strong application – Impacts a high proportion of a sector/industry’s workforce across multiple organisations.

    • Weak application – Impacts a small proportion of the sector/industry workforce.

    Multi-industry

    • Strong application – Addresses a common need/opportunity for more than three of the eligible industry/sectors.

    • Weak application – No cross-sector impact.

    Addresses key need/opportunity

    • Strong application – Addresses critical and well documented needs, shows deep understanding of workforce/s.

    • Weak application – Addresses a minor need with limited evidence.

    We will prioritise projects that improve outcomes for workers who are Māori, Pacific or Disabled People. To be assessed as a programme designed for these groups, a project will: have clearly incorporated their culture; involved comprehensive engagement with the audience; and showed an understanding of their workforce needs.

    • Quality of the project plan

    • Capability of the organisation/people

    • Evidence base for the project (both the identified need and the approach to addressing)

    • Monitoring of progress and measurement of results

    • Budget justification/cost effectiveness

    • Openness to sharing for wider sector benefit

    • Commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi/The Treaty of Waitangi

    • Feasibility and sustainability of the project

How much funding is available

$15m is available that will be distributed over approximately three years.

The minimum that can be applied for is $30k. Given the fund is for projects with significant impacts on asectors/industries workforce/s, we will fund large, multi-year applications.

There isn’t a set amount of funding that will be distributed in the first round. It will depend on the number and nature of the applications.

Help to apply

The next grant round is scheduled to open in August 2025. The website will be updated closer to the time. Organisations need to talk with the fund team before they can submit an application.

Our contracting approach 

We are expecting to fund a diverse range of projects of varying sizes from different types of entities, therefore our contracts will be tailored to suit the nature of the application. Some general practices will be:

  • Your proposal, budget and timeline being used as a schedule outlining the project details that you will need to deliver on, unless otherwise agreed by the funder

  • Payment up front, but with five per cent withheld until a final report is provided showing satisfactory delivery of the stated outcomes

  • Where payment is made in installments (for example, multi-year grants), a progress report showing satisfactory delivery against milestones will be required before the next payment

  • Larger and more complex projects may have contracts with additional clauses, for example dependencies

  • Contracts will include a template for progress and final reporting

  • Outlining your obligations to share details from your project, which may include methodology and results, to maximise the impact on the industry workforce/s

  • You will need to acknowledge the funder in communications

  • Seeking a collaborative working relationship between the funder and the organisation being funded with a view to maximising the impact of the funding.

FAQs

  • You can apply for one project per round.

    If you are not successful, we may invite you to submit your proposal in a later round with suggestions on how to strengthen your application. You can submit a proposal a maximum of two times.

    You can apply for different projects in future grant rounds.

    Organisations are required to talk with the Executive Officer prior to every application for this very specific fund. The discussion helps determine if your project is suitable and provides application guidance if needed.

    If you’ve read the website information and assess you are eligible and have an appropriate project, email admin@workforcefuturesfund.nz to arrange a chat. This can be at any time, including between grant rounds.

  • We will fully fund applications. We also welcome applications where the organisations have other funding sources or in-kind support.

  • The fund’s administrative resource checks applications for completeness and eligibility and then the Grants Assessment Panel considers the applications before the Board makes decisions.

    Applications for the first grant round closed on March 16, and decisions will be communicated in mid-June. The second grant round is scheduled to open in August 2025.

  • We seek the information in a written form, but you are welcome to also provide additional video content as is relevant to your application.

    If you need help to write your application, or there is a specific reason you want to provide an application using video, email us via admin@workforcefuturesfund.nz and we’ll arrange a chat.

  • The relevance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi to the fund includes that:

    • (Source of the funds) Much of the money that has contributed to the fund has come from the Crown, a signatory to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

    • (Lens of equality) Article three in Te Tiriti o Waitangi relates to ōritetanga/equality. The fund can give effect to article three through supporting vocational education and employment outcomes for Māori.

    • (Lens of opportunity) The organisational value of respect acknowledges that the industries are best placed to know the issues/opportunities and the solutions. This can be further broken down to respecting the initiatives that are led by or have significant Māori contribution to them will be more likely to be successful with Māori audiences. This links to article two rangatiratanga (self determination).

    • (Lens of nationbuilding) Our workforces are critical to our communities, and some of the industries provide essential services to vulnerable community members. Te Tiriti o Waitangi sought balance between tangata whenua and tangata tiriti and for each to take care of the other. Acknowledging Te Tiriti o Waitangu supports strengthened workforces and services.

    We are implementing this in a number of ways through our strategy, application assessment, ensuring Māori representation in advice and decision making, monitoring and evaluation; and engagement. If you are eligible for the funds (see website information) and have a proposal that will positively impact Māori in the specified workforces, please email admin@workforcefuturesfund.nz as we are keen to discuss it.

  • Yes, we meet the charitable purpose of advancement of education given that we will only fund organisations with projects that have wide workforce benefit. We will not support a project benefitting just one organisation or workplace.

  • We are aiming that this limited amount of funding has a large, and medium to long term impact on the eight eligible sectors. To do that we are seeking initiatives that meet the most pressing needs and/or offer the most opportunity for large scale innovation and progression.

    It’s therefore essential that the industry/ies that you are seeking to assist support your proposal as being a top need/opportunity. Applicants need to demonstrate this significant industry support through, for example, getting a peak body or some major industry players to endorse the project.

  • The fund was established with reserves from Careerforce following the transition of its learning and training functions into Te Pūkenga as part of the Reform of Vocational Education. The eligible sectors for the fund are those served by Careerforce at the time it transitioned into Te Pūkenga.

  • Community Support Services Industry Training Organisation is the legal entity for the fund. CSSITO is a charitable company and a registered charity (CC32360).

  • About $15m is available and we expect to grant this over the next three years. We don’t have a set amount that we will grant each funding round. We are looking for projects seeking more than $30k, and we are prepared to fund large, multi-year initiatives. We recommend emailing us via admin@workforcefuturesfund.nz and we can discuss your idea. Please ensure you have read the information to determine whether you are eligible first.

  • The name Workforce Futures Fund was developed at a workshop of shareholders and board members.

    We acknowledge the team at Māori translation service Ōkupu, who gifted us Tahua (fund) Rāngaimahi (workforce) Anamata (future).