The purpose of this qualification is to provide the engineering industry with people that are able to consistently apply understanding and skills to the standard expected of a practicing engineering technician in either the civil, electrical or mechanical practice areas.

It is aligned with Engineering New Zealand's competence standard for engineering technicians seeking recognition as a Chartered Member - CMEngNZ (Engineering Technician).

The New Zealand Diploma in Engineering Practice is intended to supplement and integrate the academic learning achieved through completion of a New Zealand Diploma in Engineering (NZDE) with practical knowledge and experience, and hence develop further competence in engineering through on-job experience.

Graduates of this qualification will be able to:

- Apply detailed engineering knowledge underpinning good practice as an engineering technician relevant to their specialist field of engineering practice.
- Be responsible for making decisions on part or all of one or more or more well-defined engineering activities.
- Manage part or all of one or more well-defined engineering activities in accordance with good engineering management practice.
- Communicate professionally, collaboratively and clearly in the course of well-defined engineering activities.
- Maintain the currency of engineering knowledge and skills.
- Exercise sound judgement while carrying out engineering activities.
- Conduct engineering activities to a professional and ethical standard at least equivalent to the relevant code of professional engineering body's rules and code of ethical conduct.
- Recognise the reasonably foreseeable social, cultural and environmental effects of well-defined engineering activities.

Graduates of the Civil Engineering strand will also be able to:
- Define, investigate and analyse well-defined engineering problems in accordance with good practice for civil engineering.
- Design or develop solutions to well-defined engineering problems by applying accepted procedures and methodologies.
- Identify risk and apply risk management techniques to well-defined civil engineering problems

Graduates of the Electrical Engineering strand will also be able to:
- Define, investigate and analyse well-defined engineering problems in accordance with good practice for engineering.
- Design or develop solutions to well-defined electrical engineering problems by applying accepted procedures and methodologies.
- Identify risk and apply risk management techniques to well-defined electrical engineering problems.

Graduates of the Mechanical Engineering strand will also be able to:
- Identify, state and analyse well-defined engineering problems in accordance with good practice for engineering.
- Design or develop solutions to well-defined mechanical engineering problems by applying accepted procedures and methodologies.
- Identify risk and apply risk management techniques to well-defined mechanical engineering problems.

This diploma builds on the New Zealand Diploma in Engineering (NZDE) (Level 6) with strands in Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Fire Engineering [Ref: 2612], and other engineering diplomas recognised by the New Zealand Board for Engineering Diplomas.

Graduates of NZDE (Electronics Engineering) can enter NZDEP (Electrical Engineering).
Graduates of NZDE (Fire Engineering) can enter NZDEP (Mechanical Engineering).

This diploma may lead to further higher-level study in fields such as Engineering Technology or Engineering.

Well-defined engineering activities are activities or projects that include some or all of the following:
- Limited range of resources, e.g. people, money, equipment, materials, information and technologies
- Resolving interactions between limited technical and engineering issues where wider issues have little or no impact
- Using existing materials, techniques or processes in new ways
- Consequences that are important locally but aren't far-reaching
- Knowledge of practical procedures and practices for widely-applied operations and processes

Well-defined engineering problems are problems that include some or all of the following:
- Several issues, but only a few that result in conflicting constraints
- Can be solved using a systematic approach
- Resolved with limited theory but extensive practical knowledge
- Frequently experienced and so familiar to most practitioners in the practice area
- Covered by standards and/or documented codes of practice
- Limited range of stakeholders with differing needs
- Consequences that are important locally but aren't far-reaching
- Discrete components of engineering systems.