ESOL courses are for learners whose first language is not English. Learners develop their reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills in the English language, and also their knowledge of language.
Our National Qualifications in ESOL correspond with levels A1 to C1 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).
We’re hosting Understanding Standards webinars for ESOL courses on the following dates.
Thursday 14 November 2024 (10:00 – 12:00) – National 2 ESOL Literacies unit
Tuesday 3 December 2024 (16:30 – 17:30) – National 2, National 3 and National 4 ESOL
Tuesday 14 January 2025 (16:30 – 17:30) – National 5 and Higher: speaking and listening performance
Tuesday 21 January 2025 (16:30 – 17:30) – National 5 and Higher exams
These webinars will focus on the standards required for assessment and will discuss examples.
To book a place, please use our online booking system at athena.sqameet.net. You’ll need a username and password to access the booking system.
Who can study ESOL? (08/11/24)
08-NOV-2024
ESOL courses are for learners who speak English as a second or other language, who have been receiving English as an additional language (EAL) or ESOL support throughout their secondary school education while living in Scotland or other parts of the UK.
ESOL courses are not appropriate for learners whose first language is English, or learners who don’t need EAL or ESOL support in their learning. These learners would be more suited to English courses.
English and ESOL courses are equivalent qualifications, which are intended for different groups of learners based on their language needs. They are not designed for dual presentation, so centres must not enter a learner for both English and ESOL courses in the same session.
We understand that identifying whether a learner is best suited to studying English or ESOL is not always straightforward. To support centres with this, we produced our guide Who are SQA ESOL qualifications for? (102 KB), which provides more information on eligibility for ESOL courses.
This guide is available from the ‘Related Information’ section below.
Higher ESOL accepted as entry qualification for primary teacher education courses (23/10/24)
23-OCT-2024
Higher ESOL is already accepted at universities for entry into secondary teacher education courses. We’re pleased to advise that Higher ESOL will now be accepted at universities across Scotland for entry into all primary teacher education courses for 2025-26 onwards.
This is a welcome development, which confirms Higher ESOL’s status as a fully equivalent qualification to Higher English for UCAS applications to university courses in Scotland.
