TechEd 2014: Meet -- and mentor -- future IT leaders

Muckleston said the centres let students from mainly low decile neighbourhoods work on multi-media projects after school, and plan to provide training for industry recognised certification.

"To date, the HTYN has helped provide skills for more than 7000 young New Zealanders who are now going to be future industry leaders," said Muckleson.

However, he said, "There are currently around 10,000 job vacancies in the wider IT industry in New Zealand, and this is only going to grow."

He said the program and IT industry mentors can help ease the skills shortage, as well as increase the representation of Maori and Pacifica in the technology sector.

Read more:Movers and shakers: New CIO at AMP, Google exec joins Snakk