Copilot Training NZ, home
Screen-print illustration of the Ruahine Range skyline, Manawatū District
Illustration generated with AI.

Manawatū-Whanganui (Manawatū-Whanganui). Council area

Copilot training in Manawatu District

A Manawatū District office may receive farm records and pass instructions to a Feilding processor or service team. Copilot practice can give that handoff a file owner, a draft and a verification step.3,4,5

Enquire Read the local brief

60.5% of Manawatu District’s employed residents are in desk-based roles.

Role typeManawatu DistrictNZDiff (pts)
Desk-based 60.5% 63.6% −3.2
People-facing 8.9% 9.0% −0.1
Hands-on 30.8% 27.4% +3.4
Employed residents17,1842,622,534

About 10,400 people in desk-based roles. 2023 Census, counted where people live.

Rows 2 to 4: ANZSCO major groups 1, 2, 5, 6 / 4 / 3, 7, 8. Stats NZ 2023 Census, employed residents. Proxy per ILO 2025; not a forecast.
Residents
32,4002023 Census
Business locations
4,188Feb 2025, +7.7% since 2020
Employees (jobs here)
9,910at local businesses, Feb 2025
Self-employed or employers
17.4%of employed residents, NZ 16.2%
Towns with a page
11,000+ residents

What AI means for work in Manawatu District

5 findings from Stats NZ data for Manawatu District, and what each means for Microsoft Copilot training.

Workforce by occupation group, Manawatu District against New Zealand

60.5% of employed residents in Manawatu District work in desk-based roles, against 63.6% across New Zealand. Desk-based roles live in Outlook, Teams, Word and Excel, which is where Copilot works. A broad rollout has plenty of people to benefit: plan the pilot group and the champions first.

Employed residents by occupation group, Manawatu District and New Zealand, 2023 Census
Occupation groupChartPeopleManawatu DistrictNZ
Managers 3,789 22.1% 18.3%
Professionals 3,495 20.3% 26.8%
Technicians and trades workers 2,325 13.5% 12.5%
Community and personal service workers 1,530 8.9% 9.0%
Clerical and administrative workers 1,896 11.0% 10.8%
Sales workers 1,212 7.1% 7.8%
Machinery operators and drivers 1,146 6.7% 5.9%
Labourers 1,818 10.6% 9.0%

Desk-based = ANZSCO major groups 1, 2, 5 and 6 (managers, professionals, clerical and administrative, sales): roles where AI assistance is most applicable. Broad proxy informed by ILO 2025; not measured adoption or an employment forecast. People-facing = major group 4. Hands-on = major groups 3, 7 and 8.

Source: Stats NZ, 2023 Census, usually resident employed people; ILO, Generative AI and jobs: a refined global index of occupational exposure (2025).

Farming, forestry, fishing: 15.3% of local jobs, 3.2× the national share

Top employer: manufacturing, 1,693 jobs (17.1%). Heat cells mark industries over-represented against New Zealand. Plan Copilot use cases by department in the largest employers first.

Share of paid jobs by industry, Manawatu District and New Zealand, February 2025
IndustryChartJobsShareNZ×
Manufacturing 1,693 17.1% 9.4% 1.8×
Farming, forestry, fishing 1,519 15.3% 4.8% 3.2×
Public administration 1,016 10.2% 6.4% 1.6×
Education 789 7.9% 8.5% 0.9×
Construction 779 7.8% 8.2% 1.0×
Retail 749 7.5% 9.3% 0.8×
Health and social care 699 7.0% 12.0% 0.6×
Hospitality 535 5.4% 7.2% 0.8×
Wholesale 432 4.4% 5.0% 0.9×
Professional services 382 3.9% 8.3% 0.5×

Share of paid employees at business locations in the area, by ANZSIC06 industry division. × is the local share divided by the national share.

Source: Stats NZ, Business Demography Statistics, February 2020 and 2025.

Business locations +7.7% and employees +3.4%, 2020 to 2025

Paid employees 9,581 (2020) to 9,910 (2025), +3.4% against +5.0% nationally. Business locations 3,888 to 4,188. Largest job gain: health and social care (+134). Largest loss: transport and warehousing (−62).

Business locations
3,8884,188 in 2025, from 2020
+7.7% NZ +9.6%
Employees (jobs here)
9,5819,910 in 2025, from 2020
+3.4% NZ +5.0%
Change in employees by industry in Manawatu District, February 2020 to February 2025
IndustryChart20202025Change
Health and social care 565699+134
Construction 697779+82
Farming, forestry, fishing 1,4441,519+75
Transport and warehousing 350288−62
Wholesale 461432−29
Property and rental 12196−25

Geographic units (business locations) and paid employees, February of each year. Small counts are randomly rounded by Stats NZ, so small changes can be noise.

Source: Stats NZ, Business Demography Statistics, February 2020 and 2025.

Remote readiness: work at home and household internet

Both on-site and remote sessions work. Most teams start with a half-day on-site.

19.1%

Mainly worked from home, census day 2023

New Zealand 17.7%

89.3%

Households with internet access

New Zealand 90.5%

Main means of travel to work on census day, and access to the internet in occupied private dwellings.

Source: Stats NZ, 2023 Census, usually resident employed people.

Self-employed and employers: 17.4% (New Zealand 16.2%)

Most workers here are employees of organisations, the setting where Microsoft 365 Copilot rollouts are planned centrally, with licences, policy and champions.

17.4%

self-employed or employers

New Zealand 16.2%

Employed residents whose status in employment is employer, or self-employed without employees.

Source: Stats NZ, 2023 Census, usually resident employed people.

Towns in Manawatu District

Feilding is the one town in Manawatu District with 1,000+ residents; its page has its own brief.

Towns in Manawatu District
TownResidentsDesk-based Chart Business locationsSince 2020
Feilding 16,900 56.5% 1,452 +15.5%
New Zealand4,993,92363.6%654,435+9.6%

Where Microsoft Copilot helps first in Manawatu District

Keep the original Excel register as the reference and name who checks each Word or Outlook output. Shared file access should reflect the people authorised to see supplier details.3,4,6,9,11

Farming and agricultural services

Use a fictional Excel delivery register to draft a Word query list for the farm-service owner.3,4,6

Meat and food manufacturing

Prepare a shift update from an approved sample production workbook and have a site lead reconcile exceptions.3,9,11

A district session could map one safe record through SharePoint access, drafting and supervisor review.3,4,6,9,11

Public Microsoft Copilot workshops in Manawatū-Whanganui

There is no public Copilot workshop in Manawatū-Whanganui on the calendar yet. Register interest below and we will tell you when one is scheduled. Organisations can book private training for their own staff at any time.

Register interest in a public workshop in Manawatū-Whanganui

Tell me when there is a workshop in Manawatū-Whanganui

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Elsewhere in Manawatū-Whanganui

Manawatu River in Manawatu Gorge
Manawatu River in Manawatu Gorge by Pseudopanax at English Wikipedia, Public domain.

Microsoft Copilot training in Manawatu District: questions

Who should check a farm register summary?

The record owner needs to confirm quantities and delivery status in Excel before sharing the draft.3,4,6

Can Copilot help with a processor handover?

A sample workbook can support a Word draft, but production staff must check the final steps and figures.3,9,11

Is the workflow limited to Feilding?

No. The district page follows information from surrounding farms through Feilding’s service and manufacturing hub.3,4

Train your team in Manawatu District

  1. ScopeHeadcount, sites, Microsoft 365 plan and licences, and the teams you want to start with.
  2. PlanWe propose a course, a pilot group and a format, and agree the files and meetings to use.
  3. TrainOn-site or over Teams, in Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams, with your own work.
  • In person
  • Remote
  • Half-day workshop
  • Full-day workshop
  • Team rollout

Independent training by TheColab. Not affiliated with Microsoft.

Enquire

Tell us about your team in Manawatu District. We reply by email with a suggested course and format.

We use these details only to reply to you, and store them securely with TheColab. Privacy

Sources

Local research checked 29 September 2026. Population and business figures come from Stats NZ.