Maintaining professional registration through career breaks - supporting women in engineering

Women’s History Month is a time to honour the achievements of women in engineering – those who have built, designed and developed innovations; those who have broken down barriers, challenged expectations and pushed the profession forward.However, it is also an opportunity to consider the quieter accomplishments – successes that happen when women take career breaks, as they navigate family life and responsibilities, while continuing to develop professionally. Even away from full time work, women continue to broaden their skills and stay connected by maintaining professional registration, completing CPD, or pursuing further study.

Stepping away from full-time engineering roles to focus on family, caregiving, or other priorities can often lead to uncertainty, and concerns about belonging and trajectory are common. This is where professional registration provides an important sense of connection and continuity.

Professional registration isn’t just a milestone or end goal – it is a recognition of skills, knowledge and an ongoing commitment to the profession. Maintaining it during a career break helps ensure that, even if a role pauses, professional development does not.

The long-term impact can be invaluable.

Agnieszka Jezierska MSc CEng MCIHT is just one example. Her experience of staying connected to her profession during her career break of more than six years became a defining moment of her journey. After taking time away to raise her children, she returned to work part-time during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Despite the challenges of managing family life, remote working and major infrastructure projects, she achieved Chartered Engineer (CEng) status with the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT) and received the Outstanding Performance at Professional Review Award.

For Agnieszka, professional registration was never a question of if, but when. Continuous learning and recording through CPD and her MSc ensured that her time away strengthened rather than interrupted her professional development.

Today, as Chair of the CIHT CPD Panel, she brings that perspective into how professional development is supported more broadly, helping to shape a system that better reflects the realities of modern careers.

As we celebrate the women who have not only contributed but advanced engineering, we must also recognise the forms of progress that have helped them stay and return.

Agnieszka’s story highlights an important point: career breaks do not signal the end of progress. With the right support and an ongoing commitment to maintaining professional registration, time away can be transformative – renewing confidence and supporting career progression.

Career breaks are a normal part of working life and, rather than hindering progress, often enrich both individual careers and the profession as a whole.

If you are working, returning, or taking time away and would like to learn more about maintaining or starting professional registration, contact your professional engineering institution for guidance. Many institutions offer support such as reduced membership or registration fees during career breaks, flexible CPD requirements, mentoring, or other resources to help you stay connected and continue your professional development. Taking advantage of these options can make maintaining registration more accessible and ensure that time away becomes a period of growth rather than interruption.