It is not easy to become an exam centre. Centres are appointed by open competition during which all participants have to present their activities in detail and prove that they are able to meet the high quality standards expected of the British Council exam centre network. Quality customer service has to be unceasingly maintained in the centres. The British Council checks regularly through very thorough inspections how they manage with this. It also organises numerous training courses for centre staff on customer service, the latest in IT technology or new methods of exam administration. This keeps them up to date with modern technology, current trends and procedures and ensures a high standard of service is provided.
Apart from inspections carried out by British Council each centre can expect an unannounced visit by a Cambridge ESOL inspector.

Each exam session is a large-scale organisational undertaking. That is why beside the colleagues who can be met at the centres every day there is a large number of individuals collaborating with them just during exam sessions. These are first of all oral examiners and the supervisors of written papers though they equally include a legion of invigilators responsible for the proper conduct of tests. They direct candidates to the right halls, help them find their desks, check IDs, distribute and collect question papers and, last but not least, monitor if all examinees are engaged exclusively in their own work.
All these people are trained every year and their work is monitored and regularly assessed. Oral examiners need to be especially carefully prepared to fulfil their duties. They have to be highly qualified, very experienced teachers and to go through many hours of training which is concluded by a test. The successful trainees become examiners and their work is supervised by their trainer and senior examiner called a Team Leader.