The British Council has organised a programme to introduce a new English assessment tool to the University Community known as Aptis. Aptis, which is usually taken online, is an innovative global English assessment tool designed to test, assess and evaluate the English language skills of individuals in corporate and educational institutions. Addressing the participants on Aptis test, the Country Exams Manager at British Council, Mr. Balvinder Kandra, said the Aptis exam is the smartest way to evaluate all four English skills – reading, writing, listening and speaking- in combination with a core grammar and vocabulary component. Mr. Kandra noted that Aptis is also flexible since one could split the sections and take the exam at a convenient pace. He indicated that the test identifies teachers and students’ needs, assesses students’ suitability or eligibility for particular training and recruitment. It also systematically and constantly evaluates 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 also added that Aptis has been designed to meet the needs of companies and institutions around the world to filter potential candidates for recruitment. Aptis test, according to Mr. Kandra, had been tried and tested in many institutions across the world. He added that as part of the package for adopting the Aptis test, the Council’s resource persons were prepared to assist the team in UCC to deliver the test with ease and indicated that Senior Members of the University would also get the opportunity to attend flagship programmes organised by the Council. For his part, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Prof. George K. T. Oduro, thanked Mr. Kandra for his presentation and added that the University would reflect on the insight provided on the Aptis since it has a lot of prospects.
