We have a diverse range of courses for both domestic and international students.
National Trade Academy
Developing Future Careers
Check if you are eligible for Fees Free
Many of our courses are also eligible for the Targeted Training Apprenticeship fund and are free.
Contact us to find out which courses are eligible!
Trade Academies
- Dual enrolment with school
(STP)
Check out our STP (Secondary Tertiary Programmes) for High School students from years 11 to 13.
Leave the books behind for two days per week for vocational study on the land.
Courses in Many Different
Land-Based Industries
We provide training and education in many industries, including: Agriculture, Equine, Horticulture and Animal Care.
English Language
for International Students
We provide NZ and international students with English language courses, as well as optional land-based packages.
Private or Commercial
Pilot Training
We work with the New Zealand Airline Academy to provide pilot training to international students.
What can the National Trade Academy do for you?
We have a diverse range of courses available, such as: Agriculture, Horticulture, Equine, Animal Care, English Language courses, Commercial Pilot Licence, Welding and more. Watch the video below, or browse our range of courses for more details.
Learn about the National Trade Academy
We're located just 10 minutes from Christchurch city, with purpose-built facilities designed to educate and inspire. We're close enough to the city to make travel easy while allowing us the 100 hectares of space that we need.
All students are involved in the day-to-day running and development of the Training Centre and its business units which include, the Arion Farm Park, Arion Riding Centre, NTA Commercial Nursery and NTA Farm providing opportunities for excellent hands-on training.
We even have our own cherries from our orchard and bee hives for Apiculture courses and our own honey.
Hear from some of our students
During this time Covid hit NZ and my tutor Florencia was great at keeping our classes going through online video calls and getting feedback to us about our next steps and next subjects.. Throughout the year after Covid, we did heaps of work on farms, tailing, mustering, weighing lambs, a lot of pastoral work (which when going onto farms especially dairy farms is essential to know).
Florencia was amazing at sourcing work experience for me, which turned into meeting some amazing people and really building a family environment, really growing and pushing me, I also met two of my best friends now who are both also farming, sheep and dairy.
End of last year after graduation, I moved north onto a sheep, beef and deer farm, mustering on horseback all summer. Now I am shepherding on a station at the bottom of the South Island with a team of 4 dogs, mean hunting and really good people to help continue my learning and support me,
Before the course, I had worked with horses through racing industry, sport horse yards and studs. So when I needed a change but wasn’t bought up in a “farming” environment, Florencia and the NTA setup really helped me to make a shift.
Industry Memberships
NTA is a member of ITENZ, New Zealand's largest PTE membership association. ITENZ
Representing Christchurch International Education Providers with International Export Education. Christchurch Educated
Get in touch with us. We welcome all enquiries.
If you need more information about our courses, our facilities, or what we can do to help you. Please click the "Contact us" button, and use our contact form to send us a message.