British Council launches Aptis, an English diagnostic tool that fills an unmet need in the market

How can more efficient testing (Aptis) help an organisation?

Making the right selection choice is essential to the success of an organisation and the well-being of its stakeholders. As assessment methods grow in popularity, the absence of a recognised, quality language assessment tool has become more apparent.

Aptis is a business-to-business English assessment service available to organisations not individuals, and is the latest edition to the British Council’s English and Examinations portfolio of products, allowing the Council to offer a complete solution for organisations’ English development needs.

Mark Robson, Director of English at the British Council, said: “The British Council has seized an opportunity to develop something that was not yet available. Until now, organisations wanting a flexible and adaptable assessment tool to benchmark the English language proficiency of their students or employees have chosen products that are often an imperfect fit. This is because they are looking for very specific and niche solutions. Aptis will allow these organisations to effectively and easily assess the English language levels that are relevant to their requirements.

“The British Council is a world authority in the English language. We work across a wide range of English teaching and assessment services, as well as with ministries of education to improve the English language teaching in education institutions around the world. We also have decades of experience in delivering high quality exams, a position Aptis allows us to build on.”

Aptis is a new product that joins the science of language assessment.

Aptis is a flexible and adaptable English test for adults, which can be used to assess ability in all four English skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing). It can also be customised to test one or more specific skills, which allows organisations to test the skills relevant to their needs. The content of Aptis can be adapted to suit a specific domain, such as for teaching or travel and tourism, as well as  customised to suit specific cultural contexts and variants of English. Aptis can be delivered by computer, telephone, or pen and paper, and results are available in as little as 24 hours.

Leading the educational industry with technology, Aptis uses a revolutionary new interactive platform, which manages, delivers and monitors the test simultaneously. This platform also enables organisations to administer the test themselves, at a time that suits them.

The innovative marking system of Aptis is task-based rather than test-based. This means in one task several people in different locations around the world mark different items within the test, all through the online platform.

Aptis complements existing language tests such as IELTS – the high-stakes test which the British Council jointly owns with Cambridge ESOL and IDP: IELTS Australia. 

For more information on Aptis, please visit http://www.britishcouncil.org.sg/en/aptis

For media enquiries, please contact:

Louis Yong, English Assessment Adviser

British Council (Singapore) Limited 

D: +65 6470 7208

M: +65 9720 4204

E: louis.yong@britishcouncil.org.sg