How Many IELTS Points Are Sufficient to Qualify for an International Tour Guide License?

Clause 2, Article 59 of the Tourism Law 2017 stipulates the conditions for issuing an international tour guide card as follows:

- The conditions specified at points a, b, and c of Clause 1 of this Article;

- Graduated from college or higher in the tourism guiding major; in case of graduating from college or higher in other majors, an international tourism guiding professional certificate is required;

- Proficient use of the registered foreign language for practicing.

Regarding the regulations on proficiency in foreign languages, Article 13 of Circular 06/2017/TT-BVHTTDL amended by Clause 10, Article 1 of Circular 13/2019/TT-BVHTTDL provides the following guidance:

A person proficient in foreign languages as stipulated at point c, Clause 2, Article 59 of the Tourism Law is someone who meets one of the following standards:

a) Has a college degree or higher in a foreign language major;

b) Has a college degree or higher from a training program in a foreign language;

c) Has a college degree or higher from abroad in an official language training program of the host country. In case of being trained in a language other than the official language of the host country, supplementary documents proving the language used for training are required;

d) Has a foreign language certificate level 4 or higher according to the 6-level Foreign Language Proficiency Framework for Vietnam, or has a foreign language certificate meeting the requirements mentioned in Appendix I of this Circular, which is still valid and issued by a competent organization or authority.

According to Appendix I of this Circular, the IELTS certificate must achieve a score of 5.5.

Thus, an IELTS score of 5.5 or higher is sufficient to qualify for the issuance of an international tour guide card (for the registered foreign language being English).

Sincerely!