The LanguageCert System LS

The LanguageCert System is a set of English language tests developed, evaluated, and managed using an integrated, standardised, and assured approach. Both England’s and Wales’s qualifications regulators, Ofqual and Qualifications Wales, recognise and regulate our English language tests.

The LanguageCert System tests derive from extensive item banks of pre-tested and calibrated material, and associated validation research, based on an established candidature of LanguageCert tests and exams aligned to a common underlying measurement scale. To date, the LanguageCert System has based itself on tests which cover a single CEFR level, with the exception of the LanguageCert Test of English (LTE).

Following feedback from extensive use of the LanguageCert System around the world, the LanguageCert System now also includes two multi-level test variants aimed at workers and migrants, and tertiary education applicants. These are the LanguageCert General and Academic tests.

Test	Skills	CEFR level
LanguageCert General	Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking	A2
		B1
		B2
		C1
LanguageCert Academic	Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking	B1
		B2
		C1
		C2

 

LanguageCert General and LanguageCert Academic are designed for candidates who are not native speakers of English and who wish to achieve a high quality, internationally recognised qualification in English that is available and recognised worldwide. They are suitable for candidates who are preparing for entry to higher education, or professional employment in the UK or elsewhere, or for candidates who need to demonstrate that they have met the required level of English by passing a test with a Home Office approved Secure English Language Testing (SELT) provider. Both qualifications reference the descriptions of language proficiency in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). 

LanguageCert General and LanguageCert Academic measure proficiency in the same way, to the same scale, using the same task types. The two tests have been designed and developed according to the same standard procedures. The test delivery processes and scoring methods are identical. 

LanguageCert places exam validity and reliability at the heart of its qualification development processes. This means that extensive pretesting and trialling of test materials take place prior to the full-scale deployment of each qualification to ensure fairness, fitness-for-purpose, and comparability. Full scale deployment for the LanguageCert General and LanguageCert Academic qualifications is expected within 2023.