New Zealand's booming building industry hopes to recruit an extra 2000 apprentices a year with a new app for high school students.
About 10,000 students doing building, construction and allied trades (BCATS) courses at secondary schools will be able to use the app to track their progress - and ultimately to get a job and an apprenticeship.
Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation (BCITO) chief executive Warwick Quinn said only 2.4 per cent of the country's 60,000 school leavers each year - fewer than 1500 young people - started a BCITO apprenticeship within a year of leaving school.
"We think there's something like 30,000 tradespeople required to fill the gap in the next five years," he said.
"If we can add 2000 a year to what we're doing, we will be on our journey."