28 | Culham Engineering T T Virginia Wright Career pathways beckon at Culham Culham Engineering has a huge focus on training apprentices. “You’re not sitting at a desk, you could be underneath something welding or on top of a roof so it’s quite a tough industry in terms of the physicality of it.” REGIONAL Culham Engineering’s reputation has been built not only on the projects it delivers, but also on the people it develops. According to CEO David Stephenson, investing in apprentices is essential to ensuring the next generation of skilled tradespeople continues to thrive. David Stephenson has been the CEO of Culham Engineering for two years having started in the role of CFO two years earlier. “It’s a great company to work in. We started in 1958 so there’s a long list of key infrastructure projects we’ve been involved in particularly in the North Island.” Whether it’s the structural steel underpinning Auckland’s Commercial Bay complex or more recently New Zealand’s first Ikea store; installing a new electric arc furnace for Glenbrook’s steel mill or building Hamilton’s new four lane Te Ara Pekapeka Bridge spanning 215 metres, the philosophy underpinning every project is the same, “Do it once, do it right”. One of the things they’ve focused on doing well since 1960 is training apprentices, David says. “A key part of what we do, part of our ethos, is developing trades people not only for us but for the industry as a whole. “A big part of our success is that over 800 apprentices have come through our shop over the years and we get to work with them and grow them. A lot of them still work with us and some have gone on to open up their own engineering businesses and done really well for themselves.” It can be a big adjustment for these young people who are straight out of school and having to turn up every day at 7 o’clock for a full day’s work in a tough environment. “Steel is heavy so they’re dealing with heavy equipment, heavy materials, wearing a lot of PPE that’s hot and working in different positions. You’re not sitting at a desk, you could be underneath something welding or on top of a roof so it’s quite a tough industry in terms of the physicality of it,” says David. Not everyone thrives but having a mechanical mind with a bent for problem solving helps as does being able to take constructive criticism, and having a drive to grow and learn, he continues. “They’re the ones who really succeed. You talk to some of them and they have a clear path in mind of where they want to go such as project engineering or project management. From our side we want to grow well-rounded apprentices that grow into well-rounded tradesmen over time, and because we’re so broad in what we do they’re getting exposure in marine engineering, structural, buildings, industrial, mechanical, and so on.” About to complete his apprenticeship in engineering fabrication (level four) Devin Gibson was recently named Manufacturing Apprentice of the Year in the 2026 Minister for Manufacturing Awards. He was up against apprentices across all manufacturers, from architectural glass products to biotech and pharmaceutical products, and his achievement speaks to the hard work he’s been doing since he started with Culham Engineering when he left school at the end of Year 12. Within Culham Engineering apprentices can move into positions of increasing seniority and leadership until they’re running their own jobs and some of them, like Devin, focus on becoming project engineers. As David says some of their best project engineers and project managers have come off the shop floor rather than coming from a university background. “That’s ultimately where we’d love them to go as they grow through the business and Devin’s definitely got the skills to be able to do that once he gets more experience.” With his clear capacity for hard work and keen focus on where he wants to go Devin Gibson could join the ranks of those people trained by Culham Engineering over the last 65 years that they’re proud to have holding senior positions in the company. Devin Gibson was named Manufacturing Apprentice of the Year in the 2026 Minister for Manufacturing Awards. Ph 09 634 1949 | www.weldingengineers.co.nz When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Contact us to Maximise your Welding Efficiency and Minimise your Job Costs. Agents for Kobelco Welding, Nippon Steel Welding & Engineering, Chosun Welding, Lorch, Hypertherm, Abicor Binzel and more..
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