Career breaks

If you take leave from work for at least 6 months, you’re on a career break. Career breaks include:

• Parental leave
• Caring for your own, or a family member’s health
• Unemployment
• Travelling
• Elite sports or cultural pursuits
• Full-time study
• Voluntary work overseas
• Other significant circumstances

If you’re a Student Member, career breaks don’t apply to you yet.

Keep your membership while you're away

If you need to take a career break, you can easily keep your Engineering New Zealand membership and pay a discounted fee. You’ll continue to receive our membership magazine, email newsletters and be able to stay in touch with your branch.

While you’re on your break, you’ll still have access to our member area online.

Retirees

If you're retired, please fill in the below form and send it back to us. We offer a discounted membership option and you can now use Ret. in your post nominals.

Put your registration on hold

If you’re a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) you can put your registration on hold. You’ll pay a reduced fee and keep your access to our online system. You can take a break at any time during your career, except the year you’re due for reassessment.

Keep making your annual commitment

Making the annual commitment to the Code of Ethical Conduct and continuing professional development (CPD) means you can keep using your membership post nominal while you’re on your career break.

CPD remains an important part of your Engineering New Zealand membership. You need to do enough during your career break to keep track of developments within the profession. There’s not a set amount you need to do, though. You’ll know what’s most useful for you. But as a guide, we suggest you read Engineering New Zealand publications, plus anything from relevant interest groups, and you keep in touch with your professional networks.

When you’re planning to return to work, create a CPD plan to help you get fully up-to-date with latest engineering best practice within your first 12 months. This could include CPD, mentoring, supervision or peer review. It’ll help you manage your return to work safely, professionally and in line with your ethical obligations.

If you’re a Chartered Member, we’ll review your CPD records once you’ve been back in work for a year to make sure you have kept current enough to keep your Chartered Member title.

Going back to work

Staying engaged with the industry makes returning to work easier. Go to local branch events, keep in touch with people in your networks, and stay up to date by reading our magazine, email newsletters, and our news and insights online.

When you’re ready to go back to work, it’s a good idea to develop a return to work plan. This could include your plans for professional development, mentoring, or peer review.

The plan helps make sure your return to work is managed safely, professionally and in accordance with your ethical obligations. You can use your plan as part of your CPD record for your next assessment.

Registration reassessment

If you’re on a career break when your next CPEng assessment is due, you can rely on the work you did since your last assessment. Work undertaken during the last 6 years can be used as evidence of your current competence.

You just need to provide your full CPD records from this time, and a summary of any steps you’ve taken to maintain your professional engagement in your discipline. Your assessment panel will take account of the length of time you’ve been out of the workforce when recommending the period until your next assessment.