The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICASL), the premier national and professional accounting body has taken the noteworthy initiative in introducing IELTS courses for its members, students and the general public who intend to study or work where English is the language of communication.

Fulfilling this long felt need, the ICASL has joined hands with the British Council thus providing a grand opening of setting up a one-stop education centre for IELTS. This would definitely satisfy the language learning needs of the target audience to a great extent and also adding a new dimension to ICASL history as it offers both preparation classes conducted by a team of qualified lecturers and the IELTS exams carried out by the British Council. The ICASL membership is an internationally recognized qualification that has opened doors all over the world for Sri Lankans in achieving greater heights in their career. Therefore many of the members may use the ICASL qualification either to pursue their higher studies or to migrate to developed countries like Australia, US, UK and Canada where there is a high demand for Chartered Accountants.

Currently the Institute has over 3000 members, of whom approximately 1000 are abroad. In addition, a large number of prospective students will be the beneficiaries of this facility from this well recognized Institute. This move will definitely be the gateway for them to prove their English Language skills providing a stepping stone for a challenging international opportunity.

IELTS is the International English Language Testing System and it measures ability to communicate in English across all four language skills - listening, reading, writing and speaking. IELTS is now accepted as evidence of a prospective student's competency level of English by most universities in English speaking countries. Depending on the course of study that students plan to take, they must select to follow either the Academic IELTS Training or the General IELTS Training.

The Academic IELTS Training is necessary for students who plan to study at a university at undergraduate or postgraduate level and will test the student's ability both to understand and to use complex academic language.

The General Training IELTS test is required by other institutions, such as colleges and high schools, for courses that require less complex language skills, and also as a general test of English proficiency for immigration purposes in Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

The ICASL offers 3 programmes, viz a 50-hour Preparation course, 20-hour Intensive course and a one day training programme. The selection for the first two programmes will be made based on the student's competency level.

The student's standard is assessed through a placement test and each candidate is trained accordingly in a stipulated number of hours to achieve the desired score by giving individual attention with constant feedback.

Both the Preparation course and the Intensive course have been designed in an interactive way and also to maximize the performance which is tracked through regular testing. The one day training programme will be more like a recapitulating session which will give an extensive revision on IELTS preparation and also enabling the candidates to acquire effective exam techniques within a short period.
The ICASL which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2009 with trust and dependability will achieve its excellence in IELTS through its professionally qualified and well experienced lecturers, up-to-date course materials and all other in-house facilities.

The state-of-the-art Multimedia English Language Centre at the Institute will provide an opportunity for all its registered candidates the facility of self-accessing the e-module "Road to IELTS" which would definitely add much value in gaining a thorough practice of the required skills while studying at their own pace under the supervision of lecturers.

The ICASL resourceful library is well equipped with a vast array of the latest IELTS textbooks and would facilitate free access to all materials.

Hence the ICASL wishes to provide the best environment for candidates who wish to take off with IELTS and produce the best results while maintaining the quality education at its best. Those who are interested in gaining this valuable opportunity may join the next batch of the 50-hour Preparation Course which will commence on March 6 2010.