Zeal Futures to compete for national training accolade.

Zeal Futures has been named a finalist for Large Training Provider of the Year in the 2026 Australian Training Awards. It comes after the organisation won Large Training Provider of the Year at the NSW Training Awards in August.

Zeal Futures CEO Sharon Smith said the nomination reflects the organisation’s commitment to quality education, innovation and collaboration.

“This recognition highlights the tremendous work happening across our organisation every day - supporting our students, collaborating with our host employers and industry partners, and helping to build the skilled workforce our communities will need in the future,” she said.

“Just two years ago, one of our apprentices was a national finalist for Apprentice of the Year. Now our RTO has a chance to shine, and that just shows the depth and diversity of our organisation.”

Zeal Futures is the only provider in regional NSW with an integrated model combining a Secondary School, Registered Training Organisation (RTO) and Group Training Organisation (GTO), providing pathways from school to a qualification and to a career.

“Through this model, we are able to support learners at every stage of their journeys, whether they're just starting out, learning a trade, or returning later to upskill,” Ms Smith added.

Earlier this year, Zeal Futures opened its Special Assistance Secondary School at its Ourimbah campus for students across years 9 and 10. The school provides a safe and welcoming environment for disengaged youth, with tailored learning pathways designed to help them thrive. The school will be expanding to year 11 in 2027 and year 12 in 2028.

As an RTO, Zeal Futures delivers 13 qualifications across 9 fields of education from 3 campuses and online, including four key trade programs at its Rutherford campus: Engineering Mechanical, Engineering Fabrication, Electrical and the most recent addition, Mobile Plant.

Mobile plant was added to scope last year as part of a collaboration with Glencore to redesign the curriculum around system-level diagnostic reasoning. Apprentices learn to understand whole-of-system interactions combining mechanical, hydraulic and electronic to align with the complexity of modern mining equipment.

According to Zeal Futures Learning General Manager, Debbie Laarkamp, another program co-designed with industry is the work-readiness program.

“This program provides six months of structured, simulated workshop training for first-year apprentices to help them develop safety habits, communication discipline, tool competence and teamwork behaviours before they commence work on a real work site,” she said.

“Zeal Futures is also one of very few providers in Australia with International Welding Accreditation. That's not a coincidence - it reflects our commitment to genuine trade excellence.

“Not only do we achieve great results, like a 76% qualification completion rate, Zeal Futures is a strategic workforce partner with the expertise and adaptability to respond to real workforce problems, ensuring both our learners and businesses can thrive.

“At Zeal Futures, we create success stories, and I look forward to celebrating our own success at the Awards Gala in November.”

The 2026 Australian Training Awards will be held at the International Convention Centre (ICC) Sydney on Friday 20 November.