Practising Licence
All electrical workers must hold a Practising Licence to carry out prescribed electrical work.
You must apply for a Practising Licence when you apply for Registration for the first time unless you are an Overseas applicant.
You must renew your Practising Licence every 2 years. You have 3 months to renew your Practising Licence between the time you receive a re-licensing letter or email notice from us and the expiration of your Practising Licence. Your Practising Licence will expire if you haven’t relicensed during this time.
Any gaps in your Practising Licence will show on the EW Public Register.
If your Practising Licence does expire, you can apply for a new Practising Licence.
Apply for a Practising Licence
Requirements
To apply for a Practising Licence, you will need:
- A Google, Microsoft or RealMe® account to log in to the EW Portal
- To have completed a Competence Programme within the last 2 years – this will be displayed as “active” on your file if this requirement has been met
- A passport-quality photo if we do not have one on file for you
- To complete the Fit and Proper Persons declaration
- To review and update your contact details – you must have a postal address on your file
- To pay the fee using a credit/debit card or account2account (internet banking within the application)
Electrical Workers (EW) Portal
Competence Programme course
To apply for a Practising Licence, you must have completed and passed a Board-approved Competence Programme course within the last 2 years. The course you attend must be relevant to the class of registration you hold and must be current before you can renew your Practising Licence.
Book your training today to ensure you have completed a key part of your licensing requirements.
CPD Portal – Competence Management
Your Competence Management Dashboard tells you when your current Competence Programme is due to expire and allows you to search for courses that are available in your area. To see your Competence Management Dashboard, log in to your EW Portal and select “Access your CPD Portal”.
You can see this in the screenshots below.
Photo ID
You do not need to upload a new photo when you relicence.
You only need to submit a photo for your Digital Licence the first time you are applying for a Practising Licence or if you want to change the photo that is currently on your Digital Licence.
If you do not require a Practising Licence this year
You should advise the Board of why you do not require a Practising Licence.
To do this:
- Log in to your EW Portal
- Edit the "Practising Licence renewal application" on your portal dashboard
- Check your personal details are correct
- Click “I confirm I do not wish to renew my Practising Licence”
- Provide a reason as to why you do not require a Practising Licence
- Submit your application.
Going overseas and keeping your licence active or putting it on hold
If you are going overseas for an extended period and will miss the renewal date of your current Practising Licence you should let us know.
Keeping a New Zealand Practising Licence active while overseas can be difficult, as an EWRB Competence Programme must be completed to renew your Practising Licence. Only EWRB-approved Competence Programmes will be accepted.
You can let us know you are going overseas, by going to your online renewal application and selecting “no Practising Licence required”.
When you return to New Zealand, you can apply for a Practising Licence online after completing an NZ Competence Programme. Your new Practising Licence will be granted for 2 years.
Invoices
If you need a copy of your invoice, you can print it once you have paid for your Practising Licence:
- Log in to your account through the EW portal
- On your portal dashboard, click “View payment history and invoices”
- Select “My transactions” from the drop-down bar
- You can then choose the type of transaction – select “invoice”
- Click “search”
- Click on the blue invoice number, which will open your invoice in a PDF pop-up screen
- Select “download PDF”
- The PDF will download in your browser – click “open file”
- From here you will be able to print your invoice PDF.