More than 114,000 applications were made through the UK’s Skilled Worker and Health and Care Worker routes in the year ending June 2026. For a significant proportion of those applicants, proving their English is part of the journey to obtaining a visa.
That requirement has created a sizeable international market for English testing and, behind it, another market that receives considerably less attention: preparing candidates to pass those tests.
There is no official published figure for the value of the UK work-visa English testing market. Using current application volumes, test prices and reasonable assumptions about the proportion of applicants who need a Secure English Language Test (SELT), however, the examination market alone can be estimated at somewhere between £10 million and £25 million a year.
And that does not include English courses, test preparation, tutoring or other services candidates purchase before entering the examination room.
The English requirement has become tougher
A significant change came into force on 8 January 2026.
New applicants under the Skilled Worker route are now generally required to demonstrate English at CEFR B2 level, covering reading, writing, listening and speaking. Previously, the requirement was B1.
The change matters to the ELT industry.
Moving from B1 to B2 is not simply an administrative adjustment. B2 requires candidates to demonstrate considerably greater control of English. In writing, for example, learners are expected to produce clear, detailed texts, develop arguments and communicate with a degree of accuracy that many B1 candidates will not yet possess.
For candidates who need to take a SELT, this can mean more preparation before they are ready for the examination.
Who actually needs an English test?
It would be wrong to assume that every Skilled Worker applicant represents a potential SELT candidate.
The UK allows applicants to demonstrate their English in several ways. Depending on their circumstances, they may use an eligible academic qualification, an English-taught degree assessed through Ecctis, English evidence previously accepted in an earlier immigration application, or one of the nationality exemptions.
Certain healthcare professionals may also be able to satisfy the requirement through English assessments associated with their professional registration.
The number of work visa applications therefore cannot simply be multiplied by the price of an English test.
What we can do is model the market.
What is a UKVI English test worth?
Prices vary considerably according to provider, examination and location.
LanguageCert, Trinity College London, IELTS and Pearson are among the providers operating within the UKVI-approved SELT system. Four-skill examinations typically cost candidates roughly £180 to more than £250, with some IELTS for UKVI test locations in Britain charging above £300.
Take the approximately 114,466 Skilled Worker and Health and Care Worker applications recorded in the year ending June 2026.
If 40% of those applicants required a SELT and spent an average of £180, the resulting examination market would be around:
114,466 × 40% × £180 = £8.2 million
Increase SELT participation to 55%, assume average expenditure of £225 and allow for some candidates taking the examination more than once, and the estimate rises to approximately:
£16.3 million
Under a higher scenario, with 70% requiring testing, an average expenditure of £270 and a modest allowance for retesting, the figure approaches:
£25 million.
These are estimates rather than reported industry revenues because the Home Office does not publish the proportion of Skilled Worker applicants who satisfy their English requirement specifically through a SELT.
Even so, they give some indication of the commercial scale involved.
The examination is only part of the market
A candidate paying £200 or £250 for an English examination is the visible end of a much longer process.
Someone currently operating at B1 who needs B2 for a Skilled Worker application may require months of language instruction. Others will need shorter, examination-focused programmes. Some will purchase practice materials, mock tests or individual tutoring.
Writing presents a particularly interesting problem.
Reading and listening can be practised and marked relatively easily using automatically scored exercises. Writing requires someone, or increasingly a technology platform, to read the candidate’s work, evaluate it against appropriate criteria and provide useful feedback.
That makes the economic opportunity surrounding the examination potentially larger than the test fee itself.
A candidate might take one official examination but produce dozens of pieces of writing while preparing for it.
For ELT providers, therefore, the relevant market is not simply English testing for UK visas. It includes the entire preparation chain that sits before the test.
And the market extends beyond Skilled Workers
Work visas represent only one part of the UK immigration English-testing system.
English requirements also apply across a range of immigration routes and circumstances, including some family visas, settlement applications, citizenship pathways and other work categories.
The total UKVI-related English learning and assessment market is consequently larger than the £10 million to £25 million estimate for the Skilled Worker and Health and Care Worker testing segment alone.
For language schools, examination preparation centres and education technology companies, this is a market worth watching.
Much of the international ELT industry’s attention remains focused on traditional examination preparation, particularly qualifications taken by school-age learners. Immigration-related English is different. Candidates are usually adults, their motivation is immediate and practical, and the consequences of failing can be substantial.
The UK’s decision to raise the Skilled Worker requirement to B2 adds another factor. Candidates who previously possessed sufficient English for the immigration threshold may now need additional instruction before applying.
Behind every visa statistic, then, sits a less visible education market: teachers, language schools, assessment providers, preparation materials and technology.
At more than 100,000 work visa applications a year, even relatively small changes in the proportion of applicants requiring English preparation can translate into millions of pounds of additional demand
