Pearson has announced a further 32 locations worldwide where candidates can access its Secure English Language Test Pearson PTE for UK Visas & Immigration purposes.
Four new centres have been approved in the UK for Pearson to run its PTE exams in Cambridge, Cardiff, Leeds and Wolverhampton, while 28 international locations have also been added.
“[The] announcement brings our worldwide total of UKVI-approved locations to approaching 150”
In June, the testing provider announced 72 locations around the world in its second phase.
New centres in this latest phase include three in China – in Chongqing, Shenyang and XiAn – and others such as Caracas, Venezuela, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Senior vice president of English Assessment at Pearson Freya Thomas Monk said the company is continuing to “see high demand from test-takers who want to book and deliver PTE” tests as it announced its fourth phase of PTE locations.
“[The] announcement brings our worldwide total of UKVI-approved locations to approaching 150,” Thomas Monk added.
“This will help meet customer demand and give people an increasingly wider choice of test location as they look to move to the UK to work, study or live.”
The majority of locations are open to deliver tests, with a few opening once local Covid-19 restrictions permit.
Pearson VUE’s network of test centres has implemented health and safety measures, the provider added, including readily available hand sanitiser, increased sanitisation in high-touch areas, and disinfected testing workstations “to support the safety of testing candidates and staff”.
Since receiving official sanction to offer SELT for UKVI purposes from the government in May, Pearson has announced 147 locations.
Its sites offer the PTE Academic for work and study visas, and the two-skills language PTE Home test for family, settlement, citizenship applications.