Supervision

From time to time you may be supervising another electrical worker.

A supervisor is a registered electrical worker who holds an active practising licence.

The supervisor must be registered in the same class or higher than the class of registration the Trainee Limited Certificate or Limited Certificate holder is working towards.

Regulation 93 of the Electricity (Safety) Regulations 2010 states that any prescribed electrical work a trainee may do, or assist in doing, is any work that is within the particular class of work for which the trainee is seeking registration, and that is within the scope of work that the trainee’s supervisor is authorised to do.

The Limits of work page lists the types of electrical work each class can complete under the class of a Trainee Limited Certificate or Limited Certificate.

Limits of work

For supervisors

Declaration of Supervision

You must complete a Supervision Declaration form when you are supervising an electrical worker who holds a Trainee Limited Certificate or Limited Certificate.

Supervision Declaration form [PDF, 242 KB]

Supervision requirements

The Board have created a Supervision Companion Guide to assist all electrical workers in applying good supervision practices.

Supervision Companion Guide [PDF, 1 MB]

Most regulated occupations require supervision. The nature of the supervision will be:

  • Influenced by the level of: risk posed to public health and safety should supervision not occur;
  • Technical nature of the work and
  • Degree of on-the-job training.

For electrical workers Supervision is defined by section 2 of the Electricity Act 1992:

Supervision, in relation to any work, means that the work is undertaken under such control and direction of a person authorised under this Act to do the work [or, in the case of section 76, a person authorised to supervise work under that section] as is sufficient to ensure —

  1. That the work is performed competently; and
  2. That while the work is being undertaken, appropriate safety measures are adopted and
  3. That the completed work complies with the requirements of any regulations made under section 169 of this Act.

Supervisors are not expected to sight and direct every aspect of the electrical worker’s work. The Supervisor is required to exercise judgement to ensure the supervision is suitable in each case. Refer to page 7 of the Supervision Companion Guide “Types of supervision”.

Supervision is further defined by the following Board policies:

Supervision for Trainees Holding a Limited Certificate [PDF, 728 KB]

Supervision for Persons who are not Limited Certificate Holders [PDF, 772 KB]

Cancelling the Supervision Agreement

If you are no longer supervising a Trainee Limited Certificate or Limited Certificate holder, you must notify the board by logging in to your EW Portal by selecting:

  • View supervision agreements
  • Click “end supervision” for the agreement you need to cancel.

Or you can contact us in writing (email/letter).
Contact us

Once we receive notification from the Supervisor that they are no longer supervising the Trainee Limited Certificate or Limited Certificate holder, the Trainee Limited Certificate or Limited Certificate will be suspended until we approve the new Supervision Agreement. The applicant cannot complete any prescribed electrical work while their Trainee Limited Certificate or Limited Certificate is suspended.

For Trainee Limited Certificate and Limited Certificate holders

Declaration of Supervision

You must complete a Supervision Declaration form with your Supervisor and submit this with your Trainee Limited Certificate or Limited Certificate application.

Supervision Declaration form [PDF, 242 KB]

Cancelling the Supervision Agreement

If your current Supervision Agreement has ended, you must notify the board by logging in to your EW Portal by selecting:

  • View supervision agreements
  • Click “end supervision” for the agreement you need to cancel

Or you can contact us in writing (email/letter).

Once we receive notification from you or the supervisor that you are no longer being supervised, the Trainee Limited Certificate or Limited Certificate will be suspended until we approve and notify you of the new supervision agreement. You must not complete any prescribed electrical work while the Trainee Limited Certificate or Limited Certificate is suspended.

Submitting a new supervision agreement or changing your supervisor

Once you have a new Supervisor, you must submit a signed and completed Supervision Declaration form from the registered and licensed electrical worker who will supervise you.

You can submit the Supervision Agreement by:

  • Logging into your EW Portal
  • Select “View supervision agreements”;
  • Select “Change my supervision arrangement”.

It can take up to 20 working days for a change of Supervision Agreement request to be processed. You must not carry out prescribed electrical work until you receive notice that the new agreement has been approved.

If approved, both the Limited Certificate holder and the supervisor will receive a confirmation email.