The English Requirement Nobody Publishes: Employers

Every regulator in this series publishes a threshold. Several of them then say, in their own guidance, that it is not enough.

There is a second English requirement, it is set by whoever is hiring, and nobody publishes it.

SpeakShark is free for the only thing that unwritten requirement measures, three AI conversation sessions a day with no card.

In this guide: the regulator's own words · teaching · maritime · the veto · why it is harder · what it tests · what to do · limits · method · FAQ

Key takeaways

• The pharmacy regulator tells employers to check again at interview.
• Teaching guidance names a separate standard for getting a job.
• In maritime, the employer is the only gate, and publishes no number.
• One employer reference route is at the employer's discretion entirely.
• An unpublished bar cannot be read, prepared for by number, or appealed.

The regulator's own words

The General Pharmaceutical Council, in guidance addressed to applicants, includes a paragraph addressed to somebody else:

Employers still have a very important role, as part of their interview and selection process, in checking that candidates have the knowledge of English they need to practise safely and effectively in the job they are applying for.

A regulator writing that in its own English language guidance is telling applicants something important: registration is a floor, not a verdict.

It sits alongside another provision at the same body, where needing a translator to communicate during the registration process itself triggers a review of the evidence, covered in needing an interpreter can cost you registration.

Both say the same thing in different registers. The document is not the assessment. The conversation is.

Teaching says it too

The government's guidance on qualified teacher status splits the requirement in two, on one page.

For being assessed for the status: an English language qualification at the same standard as a grade 4 GCSE, and possibly a test set by your assessment provider.

For getting a job: whatever route you take to obtain QTS, you will also need a high standard of written and spoken English, for example British Council B2 level, alongside substantial teaching experience, safeguarding checks and some knowledge of the English education system.

Two standards, two purposes, no mapping between them, covered in England measures teachers' English in GCSE grades.

And in schools where QTS is not a legal requirement, the same guidance notes that many schools use it anyway to assess the quality of candidates. So the qualification does work in hiring that it does not do in law.

A whole sector where the employer is the gate

Maritime English is the pure case, because there is no regulator's floor underneath it at all.

Marlins, the main provider, describes its assessments as used for recruitment and training purposes by key employers in ship management, marine leisure and offshore sectors, across 207 approved test centres in 48 countries.

There is no published threshold because there is no authority publishing one. Employers decide what score they want.

We argued in maritime English is a hiring gate that this is harder for a candidate rather than softer: the threshold is not published, it can change without notice, there is no appeal, and it is often invisible until the application.

Every one of those is true of the second requirement in every other sector too. Maritime just has nothing else layered on top of it.

The employer veto

At the UK nursing regulator, the employer's role goes further than judgement. It includes a veto.

Its supporting evidence route requires an employer reference, and the guidance states that the decision to provide it is at your employer's discretion and that they do not have to agree, even if you meet the requirements for this evidence type.

So an applicant can complete twelve months of qualifying work, keep the same employer, keep the same line manager, satisfy every published condition, and still not have the route, because it belongs to somebody else, covered in missing IELTS by 0.5 can cost you a year of work.

That is not unreasonable. A reference nobody can decline is not a reference. It does change what the qualifying year buys, which is eligibility to ask.

Other bodies build the same dependency more quietly. The dental regulator's reference form asks a supervisor to confirm a percentage of your patient conversations were in English, and Nova Scotia's nursing regulator has an employer confirmation form of its own, covered in the dental reference route and two provinces, same nursing scores, different doors.

Why an unpublished bar is harder

The instinct is that a rule nobody wrote down must be softer. In practice the opposite.

A candidate who misses IELTS 7.0 by half a band knows exactly what happened and exactly what to do. A candidate who is not offered a job knows neither.

What an interview actually tests

The useful thing about an unpublished standard is that its shape is predictable even when its level is not.

Every version of the second requirement above is assessed the same way: somebody forms a judgement while you speak, in real time, about something you did not rehearse.

That is why the sectors where the employer is the whole gate are the ones where spoken fluency matters most, and it is why the same skill keeps appearing at the top of published requirements too, covered in speaking is the highest bar in four countries.

An interview has no format to learn. There is no task type, no timing, no rubric published anywhere. What survives the absence of all that is whether you can hold a conversation.

What to do about it

• Clear the published floor by a margin, not exactly.
• Treat the interview as a second gate, because regulators say it is.
• Ask your employer early if a reference route matters to you.
• In sectors with no regulator, ask the specific employer what they want.
• Practise unscripted conversation, since there is no format to practise instead.

That last one is the only preparation that transfers to every version of this. Role play scenarios and a daily speaking partner are the practical routes, speaking practice for nurses covers the clinical register, and cabin crew interview questions covers a sector where the interview is the whole assessment. Testing your speaking level free shows where you stand, CEFR levels for speaking explains the scale, and nine questions to ask before booking an English test covers the published half. For how examiners mark spoken English, Cambridge speaking criteria by level works from real scored candidates.

What we could not verify

No employer standard is published, which is the subject of the guide rather than a gap in it.

We did not survey employers. Everything here comes from regulators and one test provider describing employers.

We cannot say how often the second requirement decides an outcome. Nobody publishes that either.

We did not check sectors beyond healthcare, teaching and maritime for explicit statements of this kind.

The B2 example in teaching guidance is an example, not a stated threshold.

This is not employment or registration advice. It is a reading of published statements, all linked in the guides above.

How we researched this guide

This guide is built from sentences that were addressed to somebody else.

A regulator writing to employers, inside guidance for applicants. A test provider describing its customers rather than its candidates. A government page listing what an employer will want, three sections after the requirement for the qualification itself.

None of those lines is the point of the page it sits on, which is exactly why they get skipped, and collectively they describe a requirement that decides more outcomes than the published one.

The maritime case is the control. Strip away the regulator entirely and what remains is the second requirement standing alone, with all its properties visible: unpublished, unappealable, and set by whoever is hiring. Everything true of it there is true of the second requirement everywhere, just harder to see under a published floor.

We resisted turning this into advice about interviews generally, because that is not what we know about. What the sources support is narrower: the second requirement exists, regulators say so, and the only thing that prepares for it is being able to talk.

Practise speaking, from SpeakShark

SpeakShark is an AI English speaking practice app, and this is the requirement we are actually built for.

Not a band score. Not a task type. A conversation with somebody who is forming a view of you while you speak, about something you did not prepare, where the only thing that helps is having had a great many similar conversations already.

You talk, the AI answers what you actually said, and you get speaking feedback while the conversation is still running. The free tier gives basic feedback; the detailed pronunciation and grammar breakdown is on Premium.

Being straight about the limits: a free session runs five minutes with four turns, we issue no certificates, and no employer anywhere will accept our feedback as evidence of anything. It is practice.

Start free with three sessions a day and no card. Paid sessions run ten minutes with unlimited turns. Limits are on the pricing page, and how it works walks through a session. Sign up here for the requirement nobody wrote down.

We are a speaking improvement tool. We are not an exam preparation provider, and we are not affiliated with Cambridge English, the IELTS partners, Pearson or any exam board. For test format, booking and official practice material, go to the exam body directly. Use SpeakShark to make your spoken English stronger, and use official material to learn the test.

• Site: speakshark.com
• Support: speaksharksupport@gmail.com
• Free tier: 3 AI conversation sessions per day, no card

Sources

• GPhC, guidance on evidence of English language skills, June 2025: the statement that employers still have a very important role, as part of their interview and selection process, in checking that candidates have the knowledge of English they need for the job they are applying for
• GOV.UK, routes to qualified teacher status for teachers and those with teaching experience outside the UK: the separate list of what you need to get a teaching job, including a high standard of written and spoken English with British Council B2 level given as an example
• Marlins, Maritime English for Seafarers: the description of its assessments as used for recruitment and training purposes by key employers, and the 207 approved test centres in 48 countries
• NMC, SIFE for applicants: the statement that the decision to provide the reference is at the employer's discretion and that they do not have to agree even where the applicant meets the requirements

FAQ