Good news nurses, overseas nurses and midwives who want to work in the UK now nas another option to prove English language proficiency which is the Occupational English Test (OET).

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMV) UK has announced it will formally recognize OET for registration starting November 1, 2017.

Sujata Stead, OET CEO said “We are delighted that the NMC now accepts OET for registration. The NMC join a range of boards and councils from Australia, New Zealand, Dubai and Singapore who use OET to ensure nurses have the right level of English language skills to communicate effectively at work.”

Target Score for OET result

Overseas-trained nurses and midwives who are required to take an English language test to gain registration with the NMC need to achieve Grade B across all four OET subtests.

To those who have already taken OET, the NMC will only accept results from the February 2016 test administration onwards.

It is possible for nurses and midwives to submit results from two test administrations to the NMC if they comply with strict requirements.

Recognition by the NMC has resulted in several changes and improvements for OET candidates:

OET was graded from A to E. However, a new grade of C+ has been introduced to correlate to IELTS 6.5. For the time being the grade of C+ will only be used by NMC in the UK and will only apply in a very specific situation.
OET recently launched a new Preparation Portal to help candidates prepare for OET.
OET test applications will open for two test dates at the same time so that candidates can choose to apply for one of two upcoming tests.

For more information on how you can submit your OET results to the NMC, go to the NMC website from 1 November 2017: www.nmc.org.uk/registration/joining-the-register/

OET is currently available every month in over 40 countries and new venues will be opening regularly from December onwards.