Outside mainland China, Cambridge has discontinued the BEC exams. In China they still run once a year. For other countries — including Ukraine and Ukrainians abroad — the current replacement is Linguaskill Business

What should I take instead of BEC?

Cambridge recommends Linguaskill Business — an online business-English test with an adaptive format and fast results. For a general proof of level, B2 First or C1 Advanced also work

What levels did BEC have?

Three: B1 Business Preliminary, B2 Business Vantage and C1 Business Higher. The name matched the CEFR level

Are BEC and Business English the same thing?

No. BEC is the name of a specific Cambridge exam. Business English is a skill: the language of meetings, correspondence, presentations and negotiations that BEC used to test and Linguaskill Business tests now

BEC: the Business English Certificate and what replaced it

BEC (Business English Certificate) was a line of Cambridge English exams in business English. The tasks were built around real workplace situations: correspondence, reports, phone calls, negotiations. Before you start preparing, it is important to know the key fact about the exam’s status today.

Current status. Cambridge has discontinued the BEC exams in all countries except mainland China (where they run once a year). For Ukraine and Ukrainians abroad, BEC is effectively unavailable — its role is filled by Linguaskill Business.

What the BEC levels were

The line had three exams, each named after its CEFR level: B1 Business Preliminary (score 140–159), B2 Business Vantage (160–179) and C1 Business Higher (180–199). It could be taken on paper or on a computer.

Exam structure

BEC tested the same four skills as other Cambridge exams, but on business material. Each part was worth roughly 25% of the final score. Using Business Vantage (B2) as an example:

Reading. Five parts: understanding business texts — letters, notices, reports, articles. Writing. Two compulsory tasks of different types, for example a short internal message and a longer letter or report. Listening — about 40 minutes. Three parts, 30 questions on workplace dialogues and presentations. Speaking — about 15 minutes. Three parts, taken in a pair with another candidate.

What to take instead of BEC

The official Cambridge replacement is Linguaskill Business. It is an online business-English test with an adaptive format: question difficulty adjusts to your answers, so the test pinpoints your level across the B1–C2 range. It is fully online, including speaking (you respond to on-screen prompts), and results come quickly. If you need a general proof of level instead, consider B2 First (FCE) or C1 Advanced.

Tips for preparing for a business certification

Whatever the format, business tests check how you handle English in a work context. So the focus is not abstract grammar but the vocabulary of meetings, correspondence and negotiations — and the ability to use it. It helps to practise writing typical business texts (an enquiry, a reply to a client, a short report), to listen to workplace dialogues and presentations, and to get used to Linguaskill’s adaptive online format before the test itself. In corporate groups we see that the vocabulary that «sticks» fastest is the one a person applies straight away in real emails and calls.

Primary sources

Check the status and conditions on the official Cambridge pages: the Business (BEC) section and the Linguaskill overview.