How IELTS is important for work, study, and immigration abroad?

If you want to settle abroad on permanent immigration, work abroad, or pursue higher education in some foreign university, you have to prove your English proficiency by appearing in the English Language assessment test. There are various English language assessment tests prevalent across the globe and IELTS is one such English proficiency test that is widely accepted in almost all parts of the world. 

IELTS is a test of your English language and it assesses your English skills in listening, writing, reading, and speaking. If you are capable of these skills, it means that you are a good enough candidate to study, live or work in a foreign land. But even if you are good at it, you need valid proof of your English language capabilities.

 In order to get that validation, IELTS is the tool that procures that valid proof for you. IELTS is one of the most important factors which you think about when stepping outside your home pitch to a foreign land for either education purpose or career purpose or to settle. Every application filed to fulfill your foreign dreams will not be completed without an IELTS score. 

IELTS is the basic eligibility needed to fulfill the foreign dream. IELTS is important as it prepares your language to be at par globally where English is the first language. Why IELTS is important? In whichever foreign country you want to apply to and for whatever purpose, English is the first language almost in all first-world countries. 

To be able to understand the language and to be able to communicate well as per the foreign country’s terminology and norms, you need to have some valid proof that can demonstrate that you are at length with those English language parameters. IELTS is of two kinds, one is IELTS General and the other is IELTS Academic. 

You choose between the two, depending on the purpose you are applying for i.e for career purposes, for higher studies, or for immigration purposes to settle abroad. For work and immigration purposes, you need to take the IELTS General test which is a generic test of the English language to check your proficiency on four different parameters i.e reading, writing, listening and speaking. 

The format is the same as the IELTS Academic exam but it differs in difficulty level and an average score in IELTS general test will be good enough to make your application process start. On the other hand, if you want to go to a foreign country to pursue higher education like a bachelor’s degree course in graduate school or any Master’s degree in a good university, then you have to appear for the IELTS Academic test. You need to achieve high bands in IELTS academic to get admission to the university or graduate school. 

IELTS academic prepares you extensively for higher education level, improving your understanding of the level that you are able to grasp the level of education in English in the foreign university with much ease. If you are unable to understand the language, you will not be able to follow whatever is being taught to you and you may lag behind.

IELTS Academic exam score is needed for admission to more than 10,000 universities. The difference between the IELTS general and IELTS academic exam is in the reading and writing section as the difficulty level is higher. Although the listening and speaking sections are the same in both the exams.

 Whether you are applying for a work permit in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, or Ireland, to get entry into each of these countries, you require an IELTS General score. IELTS is approved and accepted in all these countries by employers as your valid proof of English proficiency. Employers could be government bodies, professional offices, etc. The same thing goes for applying for immigration to different countries like Canada, Australia, Ireland, and the UK, etc. you need to have a minimum of 6 bands. 

For the Canadian Express Entry program, you need 6.5 bands to the barest minimum to be able to apply for immigration to Canada. Their rules are stringent. Immigration or migration to another county on the basis of permanent residency is based on a point system. These points are based on your educational qualifications like a Master’s degree which will fetch you more points than Bachelor’s degree, and work experience- more the experience at work the better points it will gather for you, whether you are married or not, qualification of your spouse, IELTS score, etc. 

One thumb rule which is applicable to every country is when you are applying for any foreign country for immigration purposes or for permanent residency, the higher your band will be in IELTS, the better points you will gather. The IELTS score holds immense importance, so it is always advisable to take the IELTS exam on a serious note, prepare really well and try to achieve the best scores you can. 

The student visa for every country does require IELTS Academic score and that too bands higher than 6.5. For the student category, applying to any university in any country, 6.5 bands are considered to be the average score. Hence it is required to aim for higher bands like 7 or more. 

Many different countries have different IELTS band eligibility. As many top-notch universities around the world in various foreign countries have basic eligibility criteria of a minimum of 7 bands in IELTS Academic. Of course, some may have more than 7 while some may relax to 6.5. It’s entirely an individual institution’s decision. 

To be on the safer side you should prepare for the IELTS exam thoroughly and aim for getting higher bands keeping in mind the eligibility criteria. The band range of the IELTS exam is between 0 to 9, where 5 bands are considered to be average which will not help you much if you are moving abroad on a study visa but it may still be considered for immigration purposes. Bands higher than 6.5 are considered to be good for study, work and immigration. It adds a lot of value to your moving abroad application.