All social workers are provisionally registered until they have completed 2,000 hours of supervised social work in Aotearoa New Zealand and completed any other conditions as required by the SWRB Board.
Being provisionally registered and having a valid Practising Certificate allows you to practise as a social worker in the mandatory environment.
The pathways for a New Zealand-qualified social worker and overseas-qualified social workers to progress to full registration, are explained below.
NZ-qualified social workers
If you are provisionally registered and want to move to full registration, post qualification you will need to:
- complete 2,000 hours of supervised social work practice in New Zealand, and
- fill out a confirmation of hours form for your manager and professional supervisor to complete.
Download the confirmation of hours form
Please email the completed form to applications@swrb.govt.nz. When you submit your confirmation of 2000 hours there will be ‘provisional to full registration’ application fee, which you can learn about on our fees page.
Overseas-qualified social workers
If you are an overseas-qualified social worker, who is provisionally registered in Aotearoa New Zealand, there may be several requirements you need to meet before progressing to full registration. These requirements are outlined in the following table:
Any additional requirements are provided in the letter you receive when your provisional registration is approved.
When you submit your confirmation of 2,000 hours, and have met any other condition, there will be non-refundable fees to pay. They are the Competence Assessment fee and the Provisional to Full fee is (both are non-refundable). You can learn about these on our fees page.
