BEC exams 

are accepted by many employers worldwide as a proof of your competence in English and readiness to work successfully in international business.
In order to find out about the structure of the exam you can visit Cambridge English: Business Vantage.

The productive skills such as writing and speaking, which you have to demonstrate during the exam, seem to be most problematic, while listening and reading don’t appear to cause so much trouble. 

Below you will find a collection of questions which you might come across in Part 1 – which is a conversation between you and the examiner, and my proposal how to answer one of them.

How to approach Speaking Part 1 – BEC Vantage:

• In this part you are asked about yourself and business topics
• In the exam, listen carefully to the questions. If you don’t understand the question, ask the examiner to repeat it. Speak to both the examiner and the other candidate. Listen to what the other candidate says.
• Give more than just basic answers, support them with examples to show what you mean.
• If you don’t know the answer, because you lack knowledge of specific areas of business, say so, and try to speculate on the topic.
• In this part you have to speak for about 3 minutes.

Questions you may be asked in BEC Vantage Speaking Part 1:

1. What types of business are most sucessful in your home own?
2. Which aspects of business interest you most?
3. What training would you most like to have in the future?
4. Do you think companies should provide training for all staff?
5. Is it better to attend a full-time or part-time training course?
6. What kinds of work are most popular in your home town?
7. Which aspect of your work/studies do you enjoy most?
8. What are you planning to do next in your career?
9. Do you use computers much in your work/studies?
10. What changes in business do you expecct will happen in the future?
11. What kind of job would you most like to have?
12. What are the main products made in your home town?
13. How important do you think suitable packaging is for products?
14. What attract you to buy particular products?
15. What types of business in general do you think will be most successful in the future?

Below you will find my answer to:

Is it better to attend a full-time or part-time training course?

I am of the opinion that providing your employees with training is one of the core responsibilities of an employer, who first should identify needs for it and then try to make a plan of training and realise it. Whether it is better to attend a full-time or part-time training course very much depends on a few factors like the length of training, its frequency, intensity and so on. Based on these, an employer should decide whether his/her employee will be able to attend a training course without his performance being affected.

Additionally, it also crucial to consider the effectiveness of a full-time intensive course, as participants who for example take part in 8-hour training every day for a week  are simply overloaded. To sum up, what I think is that  attending a full-time or part-time training course must be decided upon taking into account things such as: the availability of course and attendants, their needs, intensity of the course and employer’s budget. ​

Did you find this article helpful?

Do you find it difficult to prepare for the exam on your own? I can help you unlock your potential. 

Contact me to schedule a trial lesson!.

Watch the video – BEC VANTAGE SPEAKING