Registration standard: English language skills

Registration Standards

December 2024

Ahpra and National Boards (except for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practice Board of Australia) have published advance copies of the revised Registration standards: English Language Skills (the ELS standards). These include:

the Common English language skills standard which applies to all applicants for initial registration in Chinese medicine, chiropractic, dental, medical, medical radiation, occupational therapy, optometry, osteopathy, pharmacy, physiotherapy, podiatry and psychology, and
the Nursing and Midwifery ELS standard, which applies to all applicants for initial registration as enrolled nurses, registered nurses and midwives.

Advance copies of the ELS standards are available on the Ahpra website. Please note that the 2015 ELS standards will remain current until the revised ELS standards come into effect by April 2025. We are focusing on improving the applicant experience and will provide more specific information about when the standard will come into effect in early 2025.

Read the news item for further information about the updates to the ELS standard and what you need to know about any changes before they come into effect.

The revised Registration Standard: English language skills came into effect on 1 July 2015. This registration standard applies to all occupational therapists applying for initial registration, regardless of whether they qualified in Australia or overseas.

Registration standard

Document name	PDF	Accessible format	Date of effect
Registration standard: English language skills	PDF (84.5KB)	Word version (577KB)	1 July 2015

Further information for occupational therapists

The following additional documents have been developed to supplement the Registration standard: English language skills by providing further information regarding the expectations of the Occupational Therapy Board of Australia. These documents should be read in conjunction with the standard.

Document name	PDF	Accessible format	Document date
FAQ: English language skills	PDF (197KB)	Web page	August 2015
Diagram: English language skills pathway diagram for all professions	PDF (104KB)	Word version (569KB,DOCX)	July 2015
Information for applicants: How to provide evidence of your English language skills	PDF (268KB)	Word version (799KB,DOCX)	August 2015

Consultation process

The revised English language skills registration standards for all professions were developed after a review of the existing standards, which included a public consultation. The consultation report provides a summary of responses, rationale for any changes and sets out the proposed way forward, including areas where further work is planned. The report, as well as the letter from Ministerial Council approving the new standards is available on the AHPRA website.

Retired standard

The previous version of the registration standard which is no longer in effect.

Document name	PDF	Date of effect
Retired version: English language skills registration standard	PDF (289KB)	1 July 2010 to 30 June 2015

If you are selected for audit, you will be audited against the registration standard that was in effect during the audit period, or as otherwise specified. For more information on audits refer to the audit page.