Competence programme for electrical workers

All registered electrical workers must hold a Practising Licence to carry out prescribed electrical work. You must renew your licence every two years. Before you can do this, you must complete the Competence Programme (if your last completed programme was over 2 years ago).

How it works

You will need to enrol in a Competence Programme course with a provider of your choice, who runs a course relevant to your class of Registration. We recommend you book in early to make sure you get a place in the course you want to attend.

Find a training provider

Use the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Portal to search for available courses in your area and make a booking, or be forwarded to your chosen Provider’s own booking site. Your provider will contact you to organise payment and advise on any other requirements.

To log in to the CPD Portal:

• Log in to your EW Portal
• Click on “Access your CPD Portal”.

EW Portal(external link)

You will need to must ensure that you are booking a course that is:

• appropriate for the class of registration that you hold
• appropriate to your area of work.

E-learning modules

If you have not yet completed these modules they are now available on your CPD Portal landing page.

If you have completed the current modules you don’t have to do them again. You must provide evidence to your training provider that you have completed the modules.

Once you have completed the Competence Programme, the course provider will upload this on your CPD Portal. When you apply to renew your Practising Licence, we will already have confirmation that you have met your competence obligations and are eligible to renew.

When you attend the Competence Programme course you will:  

• Get a basic first aid and CPR refresher
• Be given an update on any relevant current electrical issues by the facilitator
• Complete a written assessment, made up of 10 questions – this is 'open book' so you can take reference material to use during the assessment
• Do a practical testing exercise.

If you have recently completed a Red Cross or St John revalidation course of 6401 and 6402 (for workplace requirements) you can ask to have your Competence Programme provider exempt you from their first aid and CPR session, however you must meet these criteria:

• The revalidation course must occur within 3 months of the date of the Competence Programme course
• You can provide evidence of one of the above courses that satisfies your Competence Programme provider
• You must have checked with your Competence Programme provider that they will exempt you with the right evidence.