The EU’s Economic and Social Fund for Development (ESFD) seeks to change that. At a new training center funded by a grant administered by the ESFD’s Community Development Unit, youth have a chance to improve their English skills and take the TOEIC Bridge™ test, which benchmarks their workplace English proficiency. Created by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the TOEIC Bridge test is internationally recognized as an important credential that enhances employability.
Amideast/Lebanon, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) representative in Lebanon, helped meet the center’s need for English language instruction and assessment. The ESFD agreed to fund a package of services including training provided by Amideast for a local teacher to help prepare students for TOEIC Bridge testing, as well as Amideast’s end-of-program administration of the test.
Twenty-eight young people participating in the program’s first session successfully completed the training program and TOEIC Bridge testing. They were honored at a ceremony attended by the European Union’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Angelina Eichhorst, who personally distributed their TOEIC Bridge test certificates.
The success of this project might result in similar grant investment in as many as 20 neighboring villages. Amideast/Lebanon has already started delivering the same services to Hrar, another village in Akkar.
“The TOEIC program is strongly recommended to be extended in the poorest region, Wadi Khaled, and to be expanded to other regions that benefit from the grants and intervention of the Economic and Social Fund for Development project funded by the EU and Lebanese government,” advised Mohamed Arabi, a senior community development expert at the ESFD.
Amideast continues to offer English language training and assessment support to a range of audiences throughout the Middle East and North Africa. For more information on our programs, visit /testing/test-takers/testing-services.
