Spanish is becoming one of the most important foreign languages to learn for executives who want to expand their employability as job and investment opportunities are beginning to open up at an ever- increasing rate in emerging markets such as Mexico, Columbia, Chile and Peru. To the dismay of HR managers, there has not been a convenient test to measure Spanish proficiency. Now, the new SIELE exam is set to change all of that.

The SIELE exam is to Spanish what the TOEFL or IELTS exam is to English: it is a computer-based proficiency exam that can be taken on-demand. As of writing, the exam is available only in the USA and Brazil, but the promoters of the exam plan to make the SIELE available wordwide in only a few years.

The SIELE exam is owned jointly by the Cervantes Institute (Spain), the University of Salamanca (Spain), the Autonomous University of Mexico, and the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina), and their partner-in-technology is Spanish telecommunications giant Telefónica. It is their goal to make the SIELE exam the new standard of Spanish-proficiency measurement. Currently the Cervantes Institute offers the DELE exam, but this test is inconvenient for HR managers, since the exam is only given 3 times a year.

The SIELE exam was launched in Mexico City in mid 2015 in during a sumptuous ceremony presided by King Felipe VI of Spain. http://www.webspanish.com/blog/the-siele-exam/ The participation of the Spanish royal family underscores the importance of the test, and the symbolism of having the ceremony in Mexico City is testament to the commitment of the exam designers to provide a pan-Hispanic exam that incorporates different regional variations of Spanish, and the accents with which it is spoken.

The SIELE exam tests the four core competencies of the Spanish language. There are four sections which test reading, writing, speaking and listening. The reading and listening components of the SIELE exam are corrected automatically, but the speaking and writing components, which entail the production of oral and written expression, are recorded and sent to SIELE exam staff who grade the candidates work, and provide a response in only three weeks’ time.

Of further interest to HR managers, the SIELE exam can be taken in parts, since it might not be of the company’s interest to have a worker who can speak Spanish, but one who can read it. Test candidates who take only a portion of the exam receive a “report” which is calibrated to match the grading scale as established by the Common European Framework for Languages. SIELE exam candidates who sit all our components of the test receive a SIELE Diploma, which is graded on a scale of 1 to 1000.

The SIELE exam will be a boon to those who wish to promote the use of Spanish in the world, and a useful tool for HR managers charged with vetting job candidates based on their proficiency in the Spanish language.