When Campbell Brown began his refrigeration and air conditioning apprenticeship with McAlpine Hussmann, he expected to find a career he enjoyed - and one that would pay the bills.

He never imagined it would lead to representing New Zealand on the world stage.

The 22-year-old Papamoa refrigeration technician has been selected to compete in the Refrigeration and Air Conditioning skill category at WorldSkills Shanghai 2026, where he will test his skills against the world's best young tradespeople.

As a pre-cursor to Shanghai, Campbell was invited to compete in the WorldSkills Australia Global Skills Challenge in Wollongong this month, finishing fourth place against Australasia and Asia's best young refrigeration technicians.

"It was the real deal," he says.

"You learn the whole structure of the competition, all the marking criteria and what you're up against. It's real good training."

WorldSkills New Zealand General Manager Carl Rankin says WorldSkills competitions create much more than solely technical excellence.

"Competitors develop resilience, professionalism and the ability to perform under pressure, and Campbell demonstrates all of those qualities."

Campbell earned his place in the New Zealand team after winning IRHACE's 2025 Wallie Askew Workskills Competition, the national refrigeration apprentice competition. The win secured an interview with WorldSkills New Zealand, where candidates are assessed on both technical ability and their suitability to represent New Zealand internationally.

"It was quite an intense interview," Campbell says.

"One of the team described it as the Olympics for the trades, and that's exactly what it feels like."

During secondary school, Campbell expected university would be his next step. Instead, a Year 12 carpentry taster course and a six-minute careers networking session with McAlpine Hussmann introduced him to refrigeration and air conditioning. Work experience at McAlpine Hussmann's Tauranga branch quickly became an apprenticeship through industry training organisation Competenz and, within a few short years, a place on the world stage.

"I thought my refrigeration apprenticeship was just going to be the thing I did and hopefully enjoy it and it'd pay my bills. I never would have thought when I started my apprenticeship that I'd get the opportunity to travel around the world representing New Zealand.

"I didn't think I was going to enjoy my job so much either."

Today, Campbell works across commercial refrigeration and air conditioning systems, from installations and preventative maintenance through to complex electrical fault finding.

"I like the unknown of turning up to work most days. You don't actually know what you're going to be working on."

Campbell's curiosity started long before his apprenticeship – his childhood spent under the tutelage of his father, pulling apart and putting back together fishing reels and later, learning to do oil changes for his first car.

"At work, I quite enjoy the electrical fault finding. It's like a puzzle."

Campbell says refrigeration and air conditioning is a future-proof career that never stands still. New refrigerants, changing environmental regulations and increasingly efficient systems mean technicians are constantly developing new skills.

"The technology is going to be forever changing, getting cleaner and more efficient. There are technicians with 20 years' experience and they're still learning every day."

Preparing for WorldSkills doesn't stop when Campbell clocks off. Alongside his normal workload, he volunteers for additional on-call shifts, treating every unexpected breakdown as competition training. Daniel Jordan is the industry expert assigned to Campbell to prepare and coach him through the competition, while McAlpine Hussmann has also invested heavily in his preparation, providing the materials for him to build and commission a complete refrigeration system from scratch.

Industry body IRHACE has backed Campbell's WorldSkills campaign after providing the pathway to international competition and supporting his preparations for both Australia and Shanghai, while structured training assistance and online learning with Competenz supported his apprenticeship journey.

Carl says Campbell's success is no accident.

"It's that three-legged stool. You've got a young person with a great attitude and a willingness to learn, a training provider that's giving them every opportunity, and an employer that's committed to supporting them through on-job training and everything else they need.

"When those three things come together, you get a great outcome."

More than 1,500 competitors from around 70 countries will compete across more than 60 skill categories at WorldSkills Shanghai in September. Campbell will tackle demanding practical challenges testing refrigeration installation, commissioning, servicing and fault-finding, while organisers expect around two million visitors throughout the event.

Some of the McAlpine Hussman and Competenz team will join Campbell's parents in Shanghai in September to cheer him on, along with his sister and her partner.

He hopes his journey encourages more young New Zealanders to explore where vocational education and a trade can take them.

"I'd love to see more young New Zealanders become aware of WorldSkills because it's an incredible opportunity that many apprentices don't know exists.

"We have tradespeople in New Zealand with the skills to compete against the best in the world. It's just about making sure they know the opportunity is there."