One Province Accepts the Two Tests Another Refuses

Two Canadian regulators publish accepted test lists. One names two products specifically to refuse them. The other publishes minimum scores for both.

IELTS Indicator and PTE Core: accepted for teaching in Ontario, refused for nursing in Nova Scotia.

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In this guide: the disagreement · Ontario's list · Nova Scotia's refusal · a profession-specific test · the wider pattern · product not provider · what to do · limits · method · FAQ

Key takeaways

• IELTS Indicator: accepted by Ontario teaching, refused by Nova Scotia nursing.
• PTE Core: accepted by Ontario teaching, refused by Nova Scotia nursing.
• Ontario publishes seven accepted tests including a teaching-specific one.
• The refused products come from the same providers as accepted ones.
• Read the product name, not the provider name.

The two products

Two regulators in one country, disagreeing about two specific products, and each naming them explicitly rather than leaving them out by silence.

Naming a product to refuse it is a deliberate act. Nova Scotia has looked at IELTS Indicator and PTE Core and decided against both, in writing.

What Ontario accepts

The Ontario College of Teachers publishes minimum scores for seven tests, and the component figures are worth reading for the ordering as much as the level.

Speaking is the highest component in four of the seven, and never the lowest in any of them.

That is the third body in this batch where the speaking figure comes out on top across an entire unrelated set of tests, after the American federal healthcare list and the Ontario nursing benchmarks, covered in every US healthcare English test now ranks speaking highest and Ontario ranks speaking above reading on every test.

What Nova Scotia refuses

Nova Scotia's nursing regulator states plainly that it does not accept the IELTS Indicator Test or the PTE Core Test as meeting English language proficiency.

Its accepted list is four tests: CELBAN, IELTS Academic, OET and PTE Academic, with benchmarks we set out in two provinces, same nursing scores, different doors.

So within one country, a teacher and a nurse booking a test on the same day should book different products, and one of them would waste a fee by copying the other.

A language test built for teachers

One entry on Ontario's list deserves separating out, because it is the kind of instrument this series exists to find.

The Language Competency Assessment for the Teaching Profession, abbreviated LCATP, requires a minimum score of 60 in writing, speaking, reading and listening, with results valid for two years.

A language test built specifically for one profession is rare. The Occupational English Test does it for healthcare, with profession-specific versions for medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, veterinary science and more. CELBAN does it for nursing in Canada, covered in CELBAN speaking for Canadian nurses. ELPAC does it for aviation, covered in aviation splits Level 6 into its own separate test.

Teaching now has one on a regulator's accepted list, and almost nobody writes about it.

We are not going to describe its format, because we have read a regulator's score requirement rather than the test's own specification. What the entry establishes is that it exists and that it is accepted.

Six bodies, six answers

Widen the frame and the disagreement about specific products is the norm rather than an oddity.

Seven bodies. No two positions identical.

The one body that explains itself is the NMC, which publishes six criteria a test must meet, including that the speaking element must be tested by a person and not via a computer test, and that the test must not be a general test. We set those out in the NMC wants speaking marked by a person.

Everybody else publishes a decision without a reason, which is why the only safe method is to read your own body's list.

Read the product, not the provider

The practical lesson generalises well beyond these two products.

IELTS alone covers IELTS Academic, IELTS General Training, IELTS for UKVI, IELTS Life Skills, IELTS Online, IELTS Indicator and the IELTS One Skill Retake. Every body in this series accepts a different subset.

PTE covers PTE Academic, PTE Academic UKVI, PTE Home and PTE Core, and the same is true.

OET has profession-specific versions and an at-home version, and bodies differ on both axes: the RCVS wants the veterinary version, the GPhC wants Pharmacy OET and refuses OET@Home, and the GMC wants Medicine and accepts OET@Home.

Somebody booking on the provider name alone has roughly even odds of booking the wrong thing.

What to do with this

• Copy the exact product name from your regulator's page into the booking.
• Do not ask a colleague in another profession or province.
• Check the delivery mode as well as the name.
• Check the profession-specific version if the test has them.
• Check whether a teaching-specific test is open to you, if you are a teacher.

Whichever product you book, speaking is the highest component in four of Ontario's seven tests and never the lowest in any of them, and it is the skill that does not improve by reading quietly. Role play scenarios and a daily speaking partner are the practical routes, testing your speaking level free shows where you stand, and CEFR levels for speaking explains the scale. Nigeria counts for Ontario teachers covers the routes that avoid a test entirely, England measures teachers' English in GCSE grades covers the UK equivalent, and English certificates that expire covers validity. For how examiners mark spoken English, Cambridge speaking criteria by level works from real scored candidates.

What we could not verify

Neither regulator explains its decision on IELTS Indicator or PTE Core.

We did not read the LCATP specification. We have a regulator's score requirement, not the test's own description.

We did not check the other provinces. Both teaching and nursing are regulated provincially in Canada.

We did not verify what distinguishes PTE Core from PTE Academic beyond the fact that these regulators treat them as separate tests.

We did not check CELPIP against other bodies. It appears on Ontario's teaching list and we have not traced it further.

This is not certification or immigration advice. It is a comparison of two published lists, both linked below.

How we researched this guide

We noticed this by reading two Canadian regulators within a day of each other and holding both lists in view.

Reading either alone produces nothing. Ontario's list of seven looks generous and unremarkable. Nova Scotia's refusal of two named products looks like housekeeping. Putting them side by side shows that the two products one body singles out to refuse are on the other body's accepted list with published scores.

Naming a product to refuse it was the detail that made it worth writing. A body that simply omits a test has not necessarily considered it. A body that names it has.

We then widened the frame and found seven bodies with seven positions on remote and general delivery, and exactly one that publishes criteria rather than conclusions. That ratio is the real finding, and it is why the practical advice in this guide is procedural rather than analytical.

The LCATP entry we flagged and did not expand, because the honest position is that we have seen a regulator's score line rather than the test itself. Naming an instrument we have not read as though we understood it would be the easy error here.

Practise speaking, from SpeakShark

SpeakShark is an AI English speaking practice app, and none of the differences in this guide affect what preparation looks like.

Seven products, two regulators, one disagreement, and speaking is at or near the top of every table in it. Whichever version you end up sitting, the section that decides it is the one where you have to talk.

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 we are not on any regulator's accepted list, in any province.

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 once you know which product you are booking.

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.

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Sources

• Ontario College of Teachers, language requirements: the accepted English tests and minimum scores for IELTS Academic and IELTS Indicator academic, IELTS General Training, TOEFL iBT on both the old and the 1 to 6 scales, CELPIP General, PTE Core and the Language Competency Assessment for the Teaching Profession, and the two year validity on each
• Nova Scotia College of Nursing, English language proficiency registration requirement: the four accepted tests and the statement that the IELTS Indicator Test and the PTE Core Test are not accepted
• NMC, accepted English language tests: the six published criteria a test must meet, including that speaking be tested by a person and that the test not be a general test
• General Medical Council, using your IELTS certificate: the acceptance of IELTS Online and the refusal of IELTS Indicator, used for comparison

FAQ