Building MAST Intelligence: A new era in vocational learning

MAST entered into a strategic partnership with SupaHuman AI in 2025, to develop a purpose-built artificial intelligence solution designed specifically for the needs of New Zealand’s marine, composites and specialised industries. Rather than adopting a generic AI tool, our focus has been on creating a system that understands the structure and requirements of New Zealand Qualifications Authority unit standards and reflects the realities of vocational training and industry practice.

The result of this work is MAST Intelligence – an AI-powered learning resource development platform tailored to our training environment. The platform brings together MAST’s existing learning materials and expertise into a single, structured knowledge base built on NZQA aligned, peer reviewed content. By drawing only from trusted, qualification aligned resources developed through years of programme delivery, the system ensures that generated materials remain accurate, relevant and consistent with qualification outcomes.

One of the most significant benefits of MAST Intelligence has been the efficiency it brings to the development and maintenance of learning resources. Tasks that previously required extensive manual effort can now be completed far more quickly, allowing our team to update study guides, learning activities and supporting materials in a fraction of the time. This enables MAST to respond more rapidly to changes in industry practice and training requirements while maintaining high quality standards.

Looking ahead, this custom-built foundation opens the door to the next stage of development: an intelligent learning companion for students. By understanding unit standards, assessment expectations, technical terminology and study resources, MAST Intelligence will be able to provide context aware guidance to learners when they need it. Rather than simply supplying answers, the system will encourage learners to explore concepts, strengthen their understanding, practise assessment tasks and work through real world scenarios at their own pace.

The collaboration with SupaHuman AI represents an important step toward a more innovative and responsive future for vocational education in New Zealand. As the platform evolves, it has the potential to transform how learning resources are developed and how apprentices engage with their training – supporting confidence, capability and lifelong learning across the industries we serve.