How to become a maintenance assistant
Official title: Maintenance assistant
Also called: Repairs assistant, Mechanic's assistant, Maintenance and service assistant, Maintenance hand
Maintenance assistants do basic repairs and routine tasks. They may give out tools and materials, clean work areas and lift equipment.
Main tasks
- Repair machinery and equipment
- Test machinery and equipment
- Install replacement machine and equipment parts
- Monitor machines to find problems
- Assemble machinery and equipment
- Lubricate equipment to keep it working
- Clean tools, equipment and work areas
- Keep work areas safe and tidy
How to become one
You usually learn on the job to become a maintenance assistant. You usually don't need specific NCEA levels for this job. Required: a driver licence. Other requirements: experience in similar work.
Pay · Past change
- Median pay: $62,000 a year, a TEC estimate before tax.
- Upper: $99,000 a year
- TEC shows pay for this job by the hour: median $29.81 an hour.
- TEC's pay figures are estimates only. TEC says they must not be used to set pay, in pay negotiations or in visa applications.
- Change in the number of people doing this job between the 2018 and 2023 Censuses: Steady (TEC). This is past change, not a forecast.
Who does this work
- About 18,000 people did this job at the 2023 Census (TEC).
Related jobs
- Safety engineer
- Validation engineer
- Quality control analyst
- Maintenance supervisor
- Appliance service technician
- Maintenance engineer
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Questions people ask
How do I become a maintenance assistant?
You usually learn on the job to become a maintenance assistant. You usually don't need specific NCEA levels for this job. Required: a driver licence. Other requirements: experience in similar work.
How much does a maintenance assistant earn in New Zealand?
The Tertiary Education Commission estimates median pay at $62,000 a year, before tax.
Has the number of people working as a maintenance assistant grown in New Zealand?
It has held steady: TEC records the number of people doing this job as steady between the 2018 and 2023 Censuses. This is past change, not a forecast.
Sources
- Tertiary Education Commission (Tahatu Career Navigator): Tahatu career ideas: descriptions, tasks, pay estimates, people employed, employment change 2018 to 2023, entry requirements, registration, interest scores (Site scrape 2026-10 (816 career ideas, sitemap lastmod 2026-10-01)), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
This content is sourced from the Tertiary Education Commission through the Tahatū Career Navigator website (www.tahatu.govt.nz) and used under the CC BY 4.0 licence. All or some of the information has been modified by Peernovo. TEC has not approved, endorsed or tested these modifications. TEC will not be held accountable for any errors within this content.
Qualification information from NZQA, used under CC BY 3.0 NZ.
This work is based on/includes Stats NZ's data which are licensed by Stats NZ for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. Census data via Figure.NZ.
Includes information from O*NET OnLine by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.
Sources: Tertiary Education Commission, Tahatū Career Navigator (career ideas, pay estimates, entry requirements and study options, CC BY 4.0, modified by Peernovo); Stats NZ, 2023 Census (via Figure.NZ) and the National Occupation List (CC BY 4.0); NZQA qualification information (CC BY 3.0 NZ); O*NET interest scores (CC BY 4.0); ILO global generative AI exposure index (CC BY 4.0). Links between career ideas and ANZSCO groups, degree fields and broad job groups are Peernovo's.
These results are not official statistics. They have been created for research purposes from the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), which is carefully managed by Stats NZ.
Graduate outcomes: these results are not official statistics. They have been created for research purposes from the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), which is carefully managed by Stats NZ.
Updated 4 October 2026