New Zealand Diploma in Engineering (Mechanical Engineering major)

Graduates of the New Zealand Diploma in Engineering will be able to gain employment as engineering technicians in workplaces that have a technical/engineering basis relevant to their specialist engineering strand like mechanical engineering.

For the mechanical engineering strand, roles include the design, manufacture and maintenance of tools, engines, machines and systems.

On achievement of this qualification, graduates should:

• Be work ready and able to be employed in a relevant engineering environment to work towards the achievement of the New Zealand Diploma in Engineering Practice (NZDEP) and to meet the minimum standard of competence to practise competently to the standard expected of a reasonable Engineering Technician
• It is expected that graduates will attain the educational underpinnings and work ready attributes defined in the IPENZ Graduate Profile for Engineering Technicians.  The graduate profile defined by IPENZ is benchmarked internationally to the exemplar graduate attributes for graduates of technician education programmes recognised under the Dublin Accord

For entry to this programme, applicants are required to have:

• A minimum total of 48 credits at Level 2 in four subjects including at least 12 credits in mathematics, or
• Equivalent qualifications (eg. International Baccalaureate, Cambridge), or
• Equivalent credits from appropriate trades training and/or demonstrated skills and experience
• Minimum of eight literacy credits at Level 1 or higher including four reading and four writing

English Language Requirements

Applicants, whose first language is not English, or who come from a country where the language of instruction in schools is not English, are required to provide evidence of having achieved one of the following

NCEA Level 3 with University Entrance, or

an International Baccalaureate Diploma or Cambridge A- level qualification for which the teaching and assessment was conducted in English; or

Cambridge Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA),or Trinity College London Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CertTESOL);or

Successful completion of all primary education (being the equivalent of New Zealand primary school years 1 to 8) and at least three years of secondary education (being the equivalent of three years from New Zealand secondary school years 9 to 13) at schools in either New Zealand,,Australia,Canada, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States one of the countries listed in Rule 18.5 where the student was taught using English as the language of instruction; or

Successful completion of at least five years of secondary education (being the equivalent of New Zealand secondary school years 9 to 13) at schools in either New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States where the student was taught using English as the language of instruction; or

Successful completion of a Bachelor's Degree, Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma, Bachelor Honours degree, Postgraduate Certificate, Postgraduate Diploma, Masters' Degree or Doctoral Degree, the language of instruction of which must be in English and which must be from a tertiary education provider from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom or the United States or

Successful completion of one of the following internationally recognised proficiency tests listed below to the level required of the programme of study and with all scores achieved in a single test during the two years preceding the proposed date of enrolment

IELTS test - Academic score of 6 with no band score lower than 5.5
TOEFL Paper based test (pBT) - Score of 550 (with an essay score 5 TWE)
TOEFL Internet based test (iBT) - Score of 60 (with a writing score of 18)
Cambridge English Examination - B2 First or B2 First for schools or C1 Advanced or C2 Proficiency with a score of 169. No less than 162 in each skill.
OET - Minimum of Grade C or 200 in all sub-tests
NZCEL - a) Expiring Level b) Current: a) Level 4 (Academic) b) Level 4 (Academic)
Pearson Test of English (Academic) - PTE (Academic) score of 50 with no band score lower than 42
Language Cert - C1 Expert International ESOL Written (LRW) PASS with no less than 25/50 in each skill and Spoken (S) PASS
Trinity ISE - ISE II with no less than distinction in any band

* New versions of some NZCEL qualifications, and in some cases new qualifications, were published on 13 June 2017. These are intended to replace pre-existing versions and qualifications, which have been given expiring status until discontinued on 31 December 2019. (a) denotes expiring (b) denotes current

New Zealand Diploma in Engineering:

For students to be considered to have satisfactorily completed this programme, and to be eligible for award of the qualification “New Zealand Diploma in Engineering (Mechanical)”, they must have:

• Shown competence in all of the scheduled units, to a minimum of 240 credits in the specified strand, and upon application to NZQA.

(Please note – students failing to attend for 80% of timetabled programme hours will forfeit zero fees entitlement)

Graduates of the New Zealand Diploma in Engineering (NZDE) will be able to study towards a technologist degree such as a Bachelor of Engineering Technology, 

Classes are held Monday to Friday, 9.00am-5.00pm at SIT's Invercargill campus.

Night classes may be available please contact Carlo Gabriel here for more information.