English language skills

Our Standards

December 2024

Ahpra and National Boards (except for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practice Board of Australia) have published advance copies of the revised Registration standards: English Language Skills (the ELS standards). These include:

the Common English language skills standard which applies to all applicants for initial registration in Chinese medicine, chiropractic, dental, medical, medical radiation, occupational therapy, optometry, osteopathy, pharmacy, physiotherapy, podiatry and psychology, and
the Nursing and Midwifery ELS standard, which applies to all applicants for initial registration as enrolled nurses, registered nurses and midwives.

Advance copies of the ELS standards are available on the Ahpra website. Please note that the 2015 ELS standards will remain current until the revised ELS standards come into effect by April 2025. We are focusing on improving the applicant experience and will provide more specific information about when the standard will come into effect in early 2025.

Read the news item for further information about the updates to the ELS standard and what you need to know about any changes before they come into effect.

Registration Standards for English Language Skills

From 1 July 2015, new registration standards for English language skills will come into effect. These new standards apply to all applicants for initial registration, regardless of whether they qualified in Australia or overseas.

Document name	PDF	Accessible format	Date of effect
English language skills registration standard	PDF (375KB)	Word version (577KB,DOCX)	1 July 2015

Frequently Asked Questions

Document name	PDF	Accessible format	Document date
FAQ - find out more about the standards	PDF (197KB)	Web page	August 2015

Do you meet the English language standards skills?

The new standard introduces additional pathways for applicants to demonstrate evidence of their English language skills. Diagrams of how these work are included in the English language skills pathways document listed below.

Document name	PDF	Accessible format	Document date
English language skills pathway	PDF (104KB)	Word version (569 KB,DOCX)	July 2015
How to provide evidence of your English language skill	PDF (268KB)	Word version (799KB,DOCX)	August 2015

Approved English language test providers

If you are required to sit an English language test, please refer to either of the following approved provider's websites for more information:

International English Language Testing System - (IELTS)
Occupational English test - OET
Test of English as a foreign language internet-based test - TOEFL
Pearson test of English academic - PTE Academic

Consultation process for the English language skills standard

These new standards were developed after a review of the existing standards, which included a public consultation. The consultation report provides a summary of responses, rationale for any changes and sets out the proposed way forward, including areas where further work in planned. The report, as well as the letter from Ministerial Council approving the new standards is available on the AHPRA website.

Retired versions

Document name	PDF	Date of effect
English language skills registration standard	PDF (274KB)	1 July 2010