Today, the UK Government approved Pearson to open bookings for SELTs in a further 32 locations. This includes another four centres in the UK – Cambridge, Cardiff, Leeds and Wolverhampton - and 28 centres globally with a further three in China, in Chongqing, Shenyang and XiAn, and elsewhere in locations such as Caracas and Dar es Salaam.

Bookings can be taken at all locations, with the majority of these locations open now to deliver testing, except a few which will open once individual COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.

The tests will be delivered through the Pearson VUE test centre network. Pearson VUE’s network of test centres have implemented proactive health and safety measures including, but not limited to, readily available hand sanitiser, increased sanitisation in high-touch areas, and disinfected testing workstations (completed between each test-taker) to support the safety of testing candidates and staff.

Freya Thomas Monk, Senior Vice President of English Assessment at Pearson, said: “As we roll out more UKVI-approved locations across the globe, we continue to see high demand from test-takers who want to book and deliver PTE as a Secure English Language Test for UK Visa and Immigration purposes. 

“Today’s announcement brings our worldwide total of UKVI-approved locations to approaching 150. This will help meet customer demand and give people an increasingly wider choice of test location as they look to move to the UK to work, study or live.”

Pearson’s SELT tests are as follows:

• PTE Academic (UKVI) – a four-skills language test accepted for work and study visas. It tests speaking, listening, reading and writing skills. 
• PTE Home – a two-skills language test accepted for family, settlement, citizenship applications, as well as Sportsperson and Representative of an Overseas Business applications. It tests speaking and listening skills. 

Today’s announcement (following our first-, second- and third-phase announcements) brings our overall total of UKVI-approved locations to 147. It is expected that all remaining SELT testing locations will become operational over the coming months.  

For media queries, contact Duncan Roberts at media@pearson.com