FAQs
You can find all information on your insurance policy here. You can call the insurance provider, Rosser, on 0800 867 677 or email them in relation to claims at: p&c.claims.newzealand@chubb.com.
No, the insurance cover is for you operating as an individual. They can apply to be members and hold the insurance cover if they meet the membership requirements. Please see the YogaNZ Membership Guidelines.
Yes, the insurance covers you for delivery of yoga where ever you are operating within your scope as a yoga teacher.
You can upload these directly to the form when you apply on the Yoga New Zealand Membership Application or renewal, or you can email copies of these through to us on info@yoganewzealand.org
Yoga New Zealand members can and should use the Registered Teacher logo in their advertising and promotional materials. Use of the logo is limited to advertising, promotional materials and pages of your website directly related to your teaching - the logo cannot be used in such a way as to suggest that Yoga New Zealand has recognised any other aspects of your business, only your yoga teaching.
You can find the logos to download here (you will need to log in).
Our Curriculum Guidelines outline the areas of training you will need for each membership level. In the case that your own training falls short in an area, you can engage in further training to achieve the requirements as outlined.
There are a number of teacher training schools that provide short courses covering specific curriculum areas. Further training may also include formal mentoring with a more senior teacher, e.g. teaching as a trainee teacher under supervision or assisting the teacher in class, in which case a letter will be required from the mentor teacher to confirm the curriculum areas taught and the hours completed.
Contact us on info@yoganewzealand.org.nz if you're unsure your training meets these requirements, and would like advise regarding upskilling.
We accept applications for membership from all yoga teachers, not only those whose teacher training course is registered with YogaNZ. If your training is recognized by another large membership body, such as the Yoga Alliance, it will be recognised at the equivalent level with YogaNZ.
In cases where your training, experience or background cannot be substantiated through external documentation, please contact us, and we can support you through the application process.
Generally, at least 65% (two-thirds) of the hours spent training to become a yoga teacher should be “contact hours”, meaning face-to-face contact with your teacher (eg: about 230 hours of 350 hours). The remaining hours can be completed as home study if compliance can be assessed. For example, if the teacher training course you attended required you to complete certain activities at home and to maintain a diary of those activities, and if the diary is checked and compliance is assessed as part of the course, then the home study component of the course may be counted towards your training hours. You must be able to provide documentation to demonstrate your eligibility for the home study (non-contact) component of the training.
If you have less than two-thirds contact hours (such as through undertaking a distance learning or correspondence course), and home study compliance was not assessed, please discuss this with the membership secretary to determine eligibility for membership You may be able to enter into a mentoring agreement as described above to achieve the required contact hours. (Some ‘distance learning’ courses have been registered by Yoga New Zealand, and graduates of these courses will automatically be admitted to Yoga New Zealand membership. In cases of non Yoga New Zealand registered courses, however, special consideration of your membership application will be required).
The process usually takes 7-10 working days, with a quicker turnaround if you're applying outside of our re-registration period in September (for a membership year starting October 1st).
Non-teaching members can maintain their membership from year to year without meeting the CPD requirement (and at a lower membership cost) by becoming an Associate member instead of Full member. However Associate members do not have voting rights or access to Yoga New Zealand insurance. Please see the Membership Information document for more information.
Members who train other yoga teachers, or who are engaged in developing programs, workshops, seminars, retreats, etc, or who are involved in yoga-related research or authoring can receive CPD points for the time they spend developing these programs.
Mentoring can be an important part of professional development. For this reason, Yoga New Zealand allows the time spent being mentored to be counted as CPD. However being a mentor does not earn CPD points as this is similar to time spent teaching. Of course, mentoring records must be kept in order to claim hours of being mentored as CPD.
Your own regular yoga teaching does not earn CPD points.
The onus always remains on YogaNZ members to keep track of their CPD, so they can honestly and carefully report their CPD activities when they re-register each year. To ensure compliance, YogaNZ conducts random audits of our members’ CPD reporting.
Training hours for the purpose of increasing your level of seniority are measured by CPD points and should be calculated the same way. For example, the hours you spend training in areas that are “core” to yoga teaching generally earn 1 CPD point per hour and are therefore all counted for advancing from one level of membership to another. However, the hours you spend training in “related” areas or in non-contact training, may only earn 1 point for every 2 hours, therefore only half the hours would be counted.
To explain further, to move from Level 1 to Level 2, you need 150 hours of training (on top of the 350 hours for Level 1). That means you need 150 CPD points. To earn 150 CPD points you may require more than 150 hours of training depending on whether the training is “core” to yoga teaching or “contact”, or not.
Therefore, it is strongly recommended that Yoga New Zealand members keep good records of all training undertaken, using the attached CPD guidelines and reporting form as a template, which you will be able to use as evidence of training you have done when it comes time to apply for an increase in your membership level.
You need to login to your Yoga New Zealand account using your email and password and go to the CPD section of the dashboard. All you have to do to submit your CPD is fill in the form and upload supporting documentation.
Contact activities are characterised by face-to-face contact in a program or activity with specific learning objectives, for example, a workshop or seminar. However Yoga New Zealand recognises that members living in rural and remote locations may not have access to contact programs and some yoga teachers may not find the programs available suitable to their training and experience. Therefore, a range of non-contact activities are also accepted as CPD such as participating in correspondence, on-line, video and DVD programs.
N.B: If a non-contact program offers a means of assessment, such as an exam to measure compliance, then the program may be treated as a contact program. For example, participating on an online or DVD course on yoga techniques for chronic lower back pain, qualifies as a “core” to yoga teaching activity but receives points at the the “non-contact” level. If however, the online program allows participants to complete an exam and receive a certificate of completion, the program qualifies as a “contact” activity.
Continuing Professional Development (CDP) is a requirement to ensure that YogaNZ Members continue to engage in studentship and professional development, by training with other teachers or otherwise ups killing on an annual basis.
YogaNZ Members are required to accrue 10 CPD points over a membership year in order to re-register.
Points are allocated at 1 point per hour when training with YogaNZ level 3 or 4 teachers, and at 1 point per 2 hours with other professionals.
Reach out to us at info@yoganewzealand.org.nz if you're unsure of the eligibility if your training is eligible to earn you CPD points.
Any activity or program that develops your knowledge, experience, skill, understanding or professionalism of yoga or yoga teaching. In short, you must be able to answer the following question with a ‘YES’: Does this program or activity make me a better yoga teacher?
You need 10 CPD points every year when you renew your membership. These points are gained at 1 point per hour for training done with a Level 3 or higher YogaNZ member, or at 1 point per 2 hours for training done with other professionals.
You can renew your membership with a defecit of points, so long as you make an honest commitment to making up this deficit over the membership year.
Yoga New Zealand Registered Course providers must be themselves or employ a Yoga New Zealand Senior Registered Teach as principle trainer, unless otherwise be approved by the Yoga New Zealand Committee. They are responsible for ensuring the standard and delivery of the course meets with our highest training standards.
If there is to be any change in senior teaching personnel, you must notify Yoga New Zealand to retain course registration. If your training course is delivered face-to-face in multiple locations (e.g.: around the country), the principal trainer in each location must be a Level 3 Senior member of Yoga New Zealand, unless otherwise approved by the committee.
Each separate location in which the training course is delivered must be described in your application along with sufficient detail for Yoga New Zealand to be satisfied of the quality and delivery of the course and principal trainers in each location.
Additional teachers must be suitably qualified and experienced for the topics they teach and they are under the supervision of the Senior Register Teacher.
Your principal training course must provide at least 350 hours of training, covering the minimum hours in each of the Yoga New Zealand Teacher Training Course curriculum areas
It is required that trainee applicants have completed at least 12 months personal yoga practice before admission to your teacher training course.
Your principal training course must be of at least 12 months duration, whether full-time or part-time. If your course is shorter than 12 months duration, you must provide a formal mentoring structure to enable your graduates to achieve a period of 12 months under supervision. Please refer to the Yoga New Zealand Mentoring Guidelines for more information.
Your training course should generally have a minimum of 65% contact hours (face-to-face teaching) with any non-contact hours to be recorded by the student in a journal or equivalent, for which compliance is assessed as part of the course.
Yoga New Zealand recognises, however, that some distance learning courses may, by necessity, have less contact hours than those indicated above. Such courses are generally required to have substantial mentoring and home learning components. If your course is delivered by distance learning, a lower proportion of contact hours may be agreed by the committee, providing that all non-contact training hours are recorded by the student and appropriately assessed as part of the course. Ideally, courses with substantial non-contact hours will require the student to work with a local mentor/teacher who can supervise their distance learning, reporting back to the course provider or director.
Your training course must be a “dedicated” yoga teacher training course. This means that the entire course curriculum, content and delivery is documented and delivered as a yoga teacher training course, and not achieved by your teacher trainees making up curriculum hours by attending general yoga classes unless training based on these is an integral part of the supervised training curriculum.
You may need to provide a timetable of actual teacher training time with your course outline to satisfy the committee of this. (Attendance by a small number of other senior students at some of the advanced training sessions within your course is not necessarily precluded).
The process usually takes 3- 6 months if queries from the Teacher Training committee are responded to in a timely manner.
Yoga New Zealand will consider registering your course on the following conditions:
- You need to have a 350 hour or longer course registered with Yoga New Zealand.
- The 200 hour course meets the minimum requirements of Provisional membership in each of the Yoga New Zealand curriculum areas.
- The 200 hour course articulates into the 350 hour or longer course, allowing your teacher trainees to achieve 350 hours of training within the 3 year Provisional membership period.
- You provide all the necessary mentoring and support to ensure that your teacher trainees receive at least 12 months of teacher training under supervision.
- In every other respect your 200 hour course meets Yoga New Zealand Provisional membership requirements and is of the highest standard.