It’s been a remarkable year for 2025 Master Builders CARTERS Apprentice of the Year winner Josh Gullery.
There’s nothing average about Josh Gullery’s passage into the building trade, or through the Master Builders CARTERS Apprentice of the Year competition. The 2025 national winner cleaned up across the finals, acing both the practical and interview elements and has continued to follow a steep upward trajectory since.
At the age of just 23, Josh now supervises a crew and has an apprentice of his own working under him. It’s been quite a year. “If I’m going to go for the Apprentice of the Year, I’m going to try and win it, is the attitude I went into the competition with,” he says. “It was all my company’s doing! They planted the seed and pushed me to take that leap, which I was able to do only because they were so supportive and accommodating of me taking part in the competition and with everything that’s come afterwards.”
That company is JCC Build, the firm Josh joined following his studies at St Paul’s Collegiate in Hamilton. He decided to get into the construction trade to walk in the footsteps of his late father. His rare talent and self-belief have proven a springboard to a success that would have more than made his father proud.
“I was nervous the whole way through the competition though,” he says.
Seeing off a fellow competitor, also called Josh, at the regionals amplified the nerves on announcement night. “I was nervous enough, waiting to find out who’d won, but they really dragged it out! They said the name Josh, then seemed to take forever to say my last name!”
Once through to the final, the nerves ramped up further. “The night before the practical, they gave us about 15 seconds to have a look at what we had to make. Then, the next day, it was silence throughout the whole practical challenge,” he recalls, on making a three-metre-long wooden train. “But once each of us had finished, we’d help the others finish theirs off too. It was really nice how we all banded together.”
This year, Josh was flown down to Wellington to carry out the build for the regional final piece – just one of the many perks of last year’s overall win. “I’m super grateful for everything that’s come my way this past year,” he says.
“I’m also loving the ute. What a bonus that is!” The national winner enjoys use of a CARTERS-sponsored brand-new Ford Ranger XLT Double Cab Ute for a year, as well as a CARTERS Business Tools Grant of $5000.
Josh has seen his level of responsibility at work soar since the win; he has been managing a crew, even before qualifying himself, and now has his own apprentice.
“I’m still working on convincing him to get involved next year” he says, “especially as there’s plenty of free stuff to be won!
“I’m still enjoying working on the tools on site, as well as managing a full crew. I like providing guidance to my apprentice but take a light-handed approach and tend to leave the decision-making to him.”
Josh is fresh from taking two weeks out for a ‘pretty mean’ Outward Bound course from a base near Picton in early August. The development opportunity allowed him to further progress his leadership skills in unfamiliar environments alongside other BCITO-trained tradies. A group of them completed a half marathon together following the course and Josh also has his sights set on a full marathon soon.
He'd encourage any eligible tradies who haven’t put themselves forward for the Apprentice of the Year competition, to get stuck in. “Give it a go! I’d tell anyone considering taking part to go for it. You’ve got nothing to lose and lots of experience to gain.”
The 2026 Master Builders CARTERS Apprentice of the Year competition is underway, with regional awards events taking place through August and September ahead of the national finals in Auckland 7-9 October.
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