Linguaskill: what your team’s scores actually mean
You had your people tested and ended up with a sheet of numbers on your desk. Here is how to read them and, more to the point, what to do with them: a score tells you where someone is, not what to do next.
30 minutes, no obligation. We are not a Linguaskill exam centre and we do not sell the exam: we read the results you already have.
Linguaskill Business
What Linguaskill is
Linguaskill is Cambridge English’s online English test, adaptive and modular: the questions calibrate to the answers, so two people on the same team never see the same test. It comes in two versions — Linguaskill for everyday English and Linguaskill Business for the workplace. If you are assessing employees, the second one is the version you want.
It is the test that replaced the BEC (Business English Certificates): Cambridge withdrew B1 Business Preliminary, B2 Business Vantage and C1 Business Higher in June 2024. If a document asking for “BEC Vantage” is still circulating in your company, that exam can no longer be taken: today’s equivalent is Linguaskill Business at B2 level.
The score to CEFR level table
Each skill gets a score on the Cambridge English Scale and the matching CEFR level. If several modules are taken, the overall score is the average of those assessed.
The three things that catch people out the first time they read the results
The people who most need training come out invisible
Below B1 Linguaskill returns no score, it writes “Not reported”. The paradox: exactly the employees where training would pay off most come back with an empty cell, and disappear in the spreadsheet. They need picking up by hand, not leaving out.
The average hides the real problem
An “overall B2” can be a C1 in reading and a bare B1 in speaking. At work almost nobody has a flat profile: people read far more than they speak. If you look only at the average, you train everyone on the wrong skill.
A score is not a plan
Knowing that eight people are B1 does not tell you whether you need separate groups, how many hours, with or without a teacher, or on which concrete situations. The number is a snapshot of the starting point; the plan is a different job, and it is built around roles.
How the test is built
The modules are chosen separately: many companies start with reading and listening because they cost less and are quick to organise, then add speaking only for the roles that really talk to people abroad.
Results come back in three working days or more: roughly 3–5 days on site and 6–8 remotely for up to 500 candidates, 10–15 days above 500.
You have the scores. Now what?
This is the part we do, and it is free: turning a table of levels into a plan that can be approved, funded and started. It applies even if you ran the tests with another provider, or have not run them at all. If you want to see how we work first, there is the page on English courses for companies.
Needs interview
Half an hour with you. Which situations English is genuinely costing you: clients, suppliers, group meetings, documentation. No involvement from employees.
Written proposal
A document with the gaps by role, the recommended formats, the estimated hours and the funding routes. It stays yours and stays useful even if the course with us never starts.
Measuring the team
The our adaptive level test plus a conversation with a teacher for each employee: that is where you see the gap between the score and the person.
Frequently asked questions
Does LingoWise administer the Linguaskill exam?
No. We are not a Cambridge exam centre and we do not administer Linguaskill. This page exists because companies often come to us already holding the results and unsure what to do with them. If you need to sit the exam, the place to go is the official network of authorised Cambridge English centres.
Is the BEC still valid? One of my people has it on their CV.
A certificate already obtained remains valid as evidence: Cambridge certificates do not expire. What can no longer be done is sitting the exam, withdrawn in June 2024. One practical caveat though: a BEC taken in 2015 tells you what level that person was at in 2015. Without regular use English slips back, which is why it is worth re-measuring before designing a course.
Do I have to test everyone before starting the training?
No, and doing it first is often counter-productive. The needs interview comes first: it works out which roles genuinely have an English problem and in which situations. Testing the whole company when the need concerns eight people in the sales office is time and budget badly spent.
The team is at very different levels. How do you handle that?
That is the norm, not the exception. We work with groups of 2 to 5 people at most (around 4 is the sweet spot) precisely to keep them at the same level, and for one-off profiles we use the on-demand path with teacher support. A group that puts a B1 and a C1 together works for neither of them.
How many hours does it take to move up one CEFR level?
Our working estimate is 40–60 hours per level, with a teacher or on your own. It is a range, not a promise: a lot depends on how much the person uses English outside the classroom. The written proposal gives you the estimate calculated on your case, not a number off a price list.
Can it be funded?
In most cases yes, through the Italian inter-professional training funds or company welfare plans: we are already a provider on several welfare portals. In the proposal we set out which routes are open in your specific case.
We start from where you are
Whether you have a table of Linguaskill scores, an old BEC on a CV or just the feeling that something is off in meetings with people abroad, the first step is the same: half an hour to work out what you actually need.
Data on format, score scale and turnaround times: Cambridge English – Linguaskill. Withdrawal of the Business English Certificates: Cambridge English – Business Certificates. Page updated August 2026. Linguaskill and Cambridge English are trademarks of Cambridge University Press & Assessment; LingoWise is not affiliated with or accredited by Cambridge.
