Start your career

Who this is for

School leavers, people coming back to work after a break, and anyone moving out of retail, hospitality or a trade into warehousing, freight or logistics. No experience is assumed and there is nothing to install.

Every course is online and self-paced, so you can do one in a lunch break or work through the lot over a weekend. You get a certificate at the end of each one, which is something concrete to put on a CV that is otherwise thin.

Where are you starting from

Pick the one that fits and the courses below rank themselves for that starting point. This is our read of what matters first, not a published rating.

Path one: get job ready

Start here if you have little or no work history and need something on the CV.

Path two: build a logistics career

Start here if you already have a job and you are aiming at freight, customs or supply chain.

What the free courses actually cover

All four are free, self-paced, and take between twenty minutes and about an hour each.

• The Quick CV and Cover Letter Builder. Paste a job advert and work through the sections. You finish with a CV and a matching cover letter as PDFs.
• Understanding Behaviours in the Workplace. How different people work, and how to handle the ones you find difficult without it becoming a problem.
• Forklift Awareness for Warehouse Teams. What to do on foot around forklifts. Most warehouse and packhouse jobs put you near one on day one.
• Biosecurity Awareness. Written for staff at MPI-approved transitional facilities, which covers a lot of freight and port-side work.

They come as one enrolment in the Free Pre-Employment Bundle, or you can take them one at a time.

Getting into freight and logistics, and what the numbers say

Freight, logistics and supply chain is one of the few sectors in New Zealand that still hires without a degree and promotes on what you can do. Tahatū, the government careers service that replaced Careers NZ, publishes pay ranges for the main roles. Yearly, before tax:

Those are ranges rather than promises. Where you land depends on the employer, the city or port, and what you can already do.

On entry requirements, Tahatū says a customs broker usually does not need specific NCEA levels, though Level 2 may be useful, and that a freight forwarder usually learns on the job with a qualification being useful rather than required. Cargo and freight agent and customs broker are both listed at nought to two years of training to enter.

The one real gatekeeper is not academic. To lodge entries with New Zealand Customs you need a Unique User Identifier, and that comes through an employer and industry training rather than through university.

What these courses are, and what they are not

None of the training on this page carries NZQA credits, and none of it is a licence. Forklift Awareness is for people on foot, not the operator licence. Biosecurity Awareness is not an Accredited Person qualification. The freight courses are an introduction and do not provide a Customs UUI.

What they do is give you the language and the safety basics, so an interview or a first week on the job is not the moment you hear these terms for the first time. For a lot of capable people that is the only thing standing between them and a first role.

One more free thing worth doing

CareersNZ runs a national talent pool with a freight, logistics and supply chain sector, where employers come looking for people rather than the other way round. Your contact details stay private until you choose to share them, and it costs nothing to be findable.

Sources: pay ranges, entry requirements and training durations from Tahatū, the New Zealand government careers service that replaced Careers NZ, entries for cargo and freight agent, freight forwarder, customs broker and logistics specialist. Pay figures are yearly before tax and are indicative ranges, not guarantees.

Common questions

Are the free courses actually free?

Yes. You enrol, you do the course, you get the certificate, and there is no card required at any point. The paid courses are clearly priced and separate.

Do I get a certificate?

Yes, on completion of each course, free ones included. It downloads as a PDF you can attach to an application.

Do these count towards NZQA credits or a licence?

No. They are awareness and induction level training. Forklift Awareness is not the operator licence, and the freight courses do not provide a New Zealand Customs Unique User Identifier.

How long do they take?

The free ones run from about twenty minutes to an hour. Introduction to Freight Forwarding is seven chapters and most people spread it over a few weeks. Everything saves your progress, so you can stop and come back.

I have no work experience at all. Where do I start?

The Free Pre-Employment Bundle, then the CV builder. Four completed courses and a proper CV is a different application from a blank one, and it costs you nothing but the time.

Can I do this on my phone?

Yes. Every course runs in a browser on a phone, tablet or laptop, and your progress is saved as you go.