Achieving certification is a significant accomplishment. Keeping it is even bigger! Keep certification current by demonstrating Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
Renewals are done electronically in the NICET portal. Please log into your NICET account to get started.
See an overview of logging CPDs in your online account -- Watch Video
To protect the public's interests and promote your stature on the engineering team, NICET encourages and requires professional advancement through recertification. Once you are certified, begin tracking continuing professional development (CPD) activities according to a pre-established point scale. At the end of the three-year certification period, you must demonstrate your professional growth by documenting 90 CPD points for each certification.
CPD Points are divided among five categories, and your CPD points must be derived from two or more of these categories. Each category has a maximum number of points that may be counted towards recertification.
Click on a category name to skip ahead.
| CPD Category | Maximum points per 3-year certification period | Percentage of 90-point total |
| Active Practitioner | 72 (up to 24 per year) | 80 |
| Additional Education | 72 | 80 |
| Advance Profession | 45 | 50 |
| Certification Activity | 90 | 100 |
| Special Exam | 45 | 50 |
If you are continuing more than one certification, you may count points for some activities towards multiple certifications if those activities are relevant to continuing professional development in each of the certification areas. This demonstrates how active practitioner points are calculated-i.e. you don't have to be working full time in each subfield to earn full points.
An example of one activity that can be counted for multiple subfields might be an 8-hour First Aid and CPR course that would provide 8 education points to each subfield.
By NICET's definition, you are an active practitioner if your main job requires you to routinely perform the associated technical tasks of your certification practice area(s), either as a hands-on practitioner, an immediate supervisor, or a technical project manager. You may count hours from multiple jobs as long as the work was not performed simultaneously. You may not claim credit for hours spent working a regular second job (moonlighting).
You may claim 24 points towards recertification for each year you worked at your main job a total of 1000 hours or 120 work days (work day = 7 hours or more) AND you regularly performed tasks associated with your certification specialty throughout that time frame. If employment at your main job over the course of a particular year falls below 1000 hours or 120 days, then use the appropriate formula below and round your total to the nearest whole number.
(Number of hours worked x 24)
1000 hours
OR
(Number of days worked x 24)
120 days
Only totals of 8 or more may be counted as Active Practitioner CPD credit.
Your documentation for Active Practitioner CPD activity must include an up to date “Work History” in the candidate portal.
Additional Education includes efforts to advance, broaden, and enhance your technical knowledge and job skills. NICET will not pre-approve training efforts; you must assure that your Additional Education activities have served to increase your knowledge instead of merely reviewing it.
Your CPD point documentation for training courses and seminars must include: (a) the date(s) you attended the sessions, (b) the location of the sessions, (c) the name of the company or organization that sponsored the sessions, and (d) the subject matter of the sessions, along with a brief description of how the subject matter is relevant to the practice area.
| Additional Education Type | CPD Point Value |
| College credit courses | 15 points per semester hour OR 10 points per quarter hour |
| Training courses with pre-assigned CEUs | 1 point for each contact hour, defined as a 45-to-60-minute learning period. This period may be split overtime (i.e., a course of two 30-minute sessions held on different days). Single courses shorter than 45 minutes may not be counted. |
| Informal courses (workshops, seminars, distance learning, technical presentations at meetings, company-sponsored, in-house training sessions) | 1 point per contact hour, defined as a 45-to-60-minute learning period. This period may be split over time (i.e. a course of two 30-minute sessions held on different days). Single courses shorter than 45 minutes may not be counted. |
This category includes volunteer activity and for-hire work.
| CPD Points for Advance Profession Activities | ||||
| Activity | CPD Point Value | |||
| Active Committee or Task Force (group that conducts technical business through meetings, reports, position papers, studies, and surveys) |
Serving as an officer | 1 point per month | ||
| Participating as a member | 0.5 point per month | |||
| Presentations (Preparation and subsequent audio, visual, and/or written delivery of technical information or information about the profession to others who are seeking to advance, broaden, and enhance their knowledge and/or job skills) |
Technical paper or instruction material for a course | 15 | ||
| Delivery of your paper or presentation before an audience at a scheduled meeting | 5 | |||
| Course Instructor (directs a technical education effort) |
Instructing a scheduled course in a post-secondary educational institution | 15 per semester hour (10 per quarter hour) | ||
| Conducting a training course | Pre-assigned CEUs | 1 point per contact hour, defined as a 45 to 60-minute learning period. This period may be split overtime (i.e. a course of two 30-minute sessions held on different days). Single courses shorter than 45 minutes may not be counted. | ||
| No assigned CEUs | 1 point per contact hour, defined as a 45 to 60-minute learning period. This period may be split overtime (i.e. a course of two 30-minute sessions held on different days). Single courses shorter than 45 minutes may not be counted. | |||
| Career Day Presenter (meets with students to explain aspects of careers in engineering and engineering technology) |
Serving as a judge at a science or engineering fair, actively volunteering in an Engineers Week event or a MATHCOUNTS contest, or actively participating in other related activities | 1 point per day of participation, up to maximum of 10 points during the certification period | ||
| Professional Society (involvement with organizations that unify individuals in a career area and promote technical knowledge and pertinent practice area techniques) |
1 year of society membership is worth 1 CPD point | Up to 3 points per society (12 pts. max.)* | ||
| Attending a society meeting | 1 (15 points maximum) | |||
| NICET SME panel (serves as a subject matter expert on a NICET program) |
The following activities are part of the development process of a certification exam:
|
Amount of points awarded is dependent upon level of participation. (Up to 25 points per program) | ||
* You may only claim 3 points for overlapping national and local membership in the same society.
You can earn CPD credit for Certification Activity when you attempt, during the three-year certification period, to upgrade a NICET certification and/or achieve a NICET certification in a related practice area.
| Certification Activity | CPD Points | |
| Upgrade in the certification practice area | Upgrading a NICET certification | 90 |
| Meeting a higher level exam requirement (but not achieving certification) | 45 | |
| Passing one NICET examination within a multi-part standard examination package (but not meeting the full exam requirement) | 15 | |
| Certification in a related practice area | Achieving or upgrading NICET certification | 30 |
| Meeting a higher level exam requirement (but not achieving certification) | 15 | |
| Passing one NICET examination within a multi-part standard examination package (but not meeting the full exam requirement) | 5 | |
You can earn 45 CPD points for passing a special 3-hour written exam designed for your certification practice area and level. If you take the recertification exam, you must choose a test date well in advance of your certification expiration date. To apply for this exam, contact NICET certification staff by emailing test@nicet.org or dialing 888-476-4238 and pressing 3.
| Base Recertification Fee (includes one subfield) | $205 |
| Incremental Fee (each additional subfield) | $50 |
| Retired Status The fee for electing or continuing certification after retiring from all paid employment in and/or related to the certification practice area(s). See Policy #30, Item 15. |
$50 |
| Late Fee Fee assessed to return expired certification(s) to Active Status; the fee is in addition to: "recertification" exam fees, evaluation fees, and recertification fees. |
$115 |