BEC: Business English Certificate

Cambridge offers three levels of BEC exams called BEC Preliminary, BEC Vantage and BEC Higher. These exams are designed to test candidates' English language abilities in the context of business.

Of relevance to us, at the vocational college for Industrial Business Management Assistants in Hamburg, are the BEC Vantage (= B2) and the BEC Higher (= C1) levels because at your former schools you will have already studied English for a number of years. In the Fachenglisch lessons at our school you will then acquire the additional skills necessary to become an expert in Business English.

However, our Fachenglisch curriculum and our class tests differ from what is expected of you in an external Cambridge BEC certification exam. Additional preparation for these exams is therefore required, in the form of an extra course as well as self-study with the help of a textbook and learning materials provided by the course teachers.

Both exams

    BEC Vantage

    BEC Higher

consist of four components: Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking. Each of these is composed of several different types of tasks, assessing a range of different abilities. The aim of the BEC courses is to familiarise you with all the requirements that you may have to meet in your BEC certification exam and to enable you to achieve the best possible result.