The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has announced that it is changing its International English Language Testing System (IELTS) requirements for nurses and midwives coming on to the register from overseas and within the European economic area. These changes will increase flexibility for applicants while ensuring that the appropriate standard of English language is still achieved.
Under the previous system applicants were required to achieve the IELTS Academic Test Level 7 in reading, writing, speaking and listening in a single sitting. Under the new protocols the NMC still requires applicants to achieve Level 7 in all areas, but this can now be achieved over two sittings of the tests. Both tests must be within six months of each other and no single score must be below 6.5 in any of the areas across both tests.
NMC Chief Executive and Registrar Jackie Smith said:
“IELTS Level 7 provides us and the public with assurance that nurses and midwives applying to join the register from outside the UK meet the appropriate standard of English language required to work in the UK.
“We are mindful of the staffing pressures in the health service and after listening to feedback from stakeholders we have introduced changes to our process.
“We will continue to listen to feedback from nurses, midwives and their employers and assess any opportunities to introduce further flexibility.”
IELTS is a robust, well-established and internationally recognised method of testing English language ability, and is also used by the Home Office and other healthcare regulators in English-speaking countries, where IELTS Level 7 is a common requirement.
The original article can be viewed at this link:
https://www.nmc.org.uk/news/press-releases/nmc-to-amend-english-language-test-requirements-for-applicants-trained-outside-the-uk/
