The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICASL), the premier, national and professional accounting body of Sri Lanka has taken the noteworthy initiative in introducing IELTS course for its membership 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 together with the British Council to set up a one-stop education centre for IELTS. This would definitely satisfy the language learning needs of the target audience to a greater extent and also adding a new dimension to ICASL 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. Currently the Institute has over 3500 members, of whom approximately 700 are overseas. In addition, a large number of prospective students will be the beneficiaries of this facility from this well recognized Institute. This opening 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 its 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 Training. The Academic IELTS Training is necessary for students who plan to study at a university at undergraduate or postgraduate level. The General Training IELTS test is required by other institutions, such as colleges and high schools and is also as a general test of English proficiency for immigration purposes in Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Basically the ICASL offers 3 programmes, viz a 50-hour Preparation Course, 20-hour Intensive Course and 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 celebrates its 50th anniversary this year 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 Center at the Institute will provide an opportunity for all its registered candidates for 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 library is well equipped with a vast array of latest IELTS textbooks and would facilitate free access to all materials. Hence the ICASL wishes to provide a conducive environment for candidates who wish to take off with IELTS and produce the best results while maintaining quality education at its best.