British Council presents APTIS at University of Education

British Council in partnership with the University of Education, Winneba organised a presentation on Aptis for staff and students of the university to encourage them to patronize the English proficiency product. Aptis is an innovative global English assessment tool from the British Council designed to test, assess and evaluate the English language skills of individuals in corporate and educational institutions.

The presentation which was held on Wednesday 8 March 2017 at the Jophus Anamuah-Mensah Conference Centre introduced 600 participants to the use of Aptis in assessing the four components of English Language (Listening, Reading, Speaking, Writing), with an extra component of grammar and vocabulary.

Presenting the Aptis Test to the participants, Country Exams Manager at British Council, Mr. Balvinder Kandra said the test identifies teachers and students’ needs, assesses students’ suitability/eligibility for particular training and/or recruitment, systematically and constantly evaluate students’ performance, filter students and identify those who are ready to take international test such as IELTS, and test students applying for scholarship programmes.

He said that Aptis has been developed by British Council, a trusted organization with more than 70 years’ of experience in English assessment. He also mentioned that “developed by testing experts and based on the latest research in assessment, Aptis is a smarter way to evaluate English reading, writing, listening and speaking. The test is adaptable, accessible, affordable and highly flexible in the sense that it allows one to choose the right skills needed to test the English proficiency relevant to their requirements.”

According to the facilitator, the Aptis test had also been tried in different institutions across the globe to assess the unique requirements of people to make it suitable to their specific needs.

The chairperson for the workshop, Dean of Faculty of Foreign Languages and Communications, Dr. Mrs. Akpanglo-Nartey also spoke highly of the test and said that, she was hopeful that the university would purchase licenses to help in testing the proficiency levels of staff and students in English Language.

Prior to the presentation, the two-member delegation from British Council paid a courtesy call on the Vice-Chancellor and Management of the University to hold preliminary discussions on the software.

Present at the meeting were the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Mawutor Avoke, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Rev. Fr. Professor Afful-Broni, University Librarian, Mr. Viscount Buer, and the Finance Officer, Dr. T.S. Ackorlie. Some other members of staff in attendance were; the Deputy Registrar for Division of Academic Affairs, Mrs. Wilhelmina Tete Mensah, Deputy Registrar for Division of Publications and Communication, Mr. Steve van Kamassah and his team, Dean of Faculty of Foreign Languages and Communication, Dr. Mrs. Akpanglo-Nartey.

Accompanying the Country Exams Manager of British Council was Mr. George Addo, Exams Assistant