MTS is a Finalist at the Learning Technologies Awards 2026

We are delighted to announce that MTS's IELTS Practice Hub has been named a Finalist at the Learning Technologies Awards 2026, in the category of Best learning technologies project – commercial sector (UK).

The Learning Technologies Awards are among the most respected in the Learning & Development world, and this year's programme featured 25 categories in total. Getting onto the shortlist in a commercial category is no small thing: judges score every submission against a fixed set of criteria, and all claims about impact have to be backed up with hard evidence.

The category itself is designed to recognise projects where the application of learning technologies has genuinely met an organisational need and produced a lasting, measurable and positive impact for learners. We are immensely proud of our IELTS Practice Hub being recognised in this way.

What the MTS IELTS Practice Hub does

MTS runs the largest network of IELTS test centres in the UK, and as such we know that IELTS test takers are often asking themselves "Am I ready for my IELTS test?"

We also saw three problems repeating. IELTS candidates were arriving underprepared and paying hundreds of pounds for a test that they failed in, sometimes putting visa or admissions deadlines at risk. Real IELTS results take up to five days to arrive and give a score but no guidance on how to improve. And we found that good preparation was patchy; private tuition and classroom courses are expensive and timetable-bound, while much of the "free" material online is low quality and thrown together without genuine IELTS expertise.

The MTS IELTS Practice Hub is special. Launched in October 2024 as our AI-powered IELTS mock test platform, it expanded in June 2025 into a full learning hub, combining those initial IELTS mock tests with live IELTS classes taught by MTS's IELTS experts, self-access courses and 1-2-1 tuition.

The learning strategy is simple: diagnose, feed back, then teach - with the learner choosing their own route through it.

• Diagnose: Full mock tests replicate the real IELTS on Computer experience, so rehearsing under authentic conditions is itself a learning outcome.

• Feed back: Agentic AI algorithms, built by MTS, assess Writing and Speaking responses against the published IELTS band descriptors, returning indicative band scores across all four skills within minutes, plus targeted recommendations and an AI-improved version of the candidate's own essay. A specialised speech-analysis layer for the Speaking test works at phoneme level on pronunciation, speech rate, rhythm, stress and intonation, and shows every "um" and "er" verbatim for honest reflection.

• Teach: Three routes close the gap: self-access courses, live classes, and 1-2-1 videoconference sessions with our expert IELTS teachers.

MTS’s IELTS Practice Hub's signature innovation is its human-like avatar Examiners, who conduct the Speaking mock tests. As far as we know, ours is the only IELTS practice product on the market to offer this. The avatars span a range of accents, ages and genders, mirroring the variety of IELTS Examiners candidates actually meet on test day.

Underpinning all of it is a human-in-the-machine loop: our IELTS experts continuously validate the AI's scoring against their own assessments, and the algorithms are tuned accordingly.

The results so far

Between launch in October 2024 and July 2026, the Hub has attracted 6,838 active users and holds a 4.95 out of 5.00 rating from 173 reviews. Take-up among our own IELTS test takers averages at 14%, and Google Ad campaigns are bringing in hundreds of new students per month.

There's a cost dimension too. A full MTS IELTS mock test costs just a fraction of a real IELTS test, so every retake avoided saves a candidate real money.

What our users tell us matters just as much. One, Jhan, wrote:

"The AI feedback was incredibly detailed and personalised. It pinpointed my weaknesses in the speaking section and even suggested phrases I could use to improve my fluency."

Another told us they had taken IELTS in three countries with different providers, and that MTS was the only one that offered properly tailored English course support.

We have also started selling our IELTS Practice Hub in Brazil, via our subsidiary company MTS Brazil.

What happens next

Shortlisted entries in this category present to the judging panel, and the winners are announced at the Learning Technologies Awards ceremony in London on 11 November 2026. We'll find out then whether Finalist becomes Winner.

Either way, this recognition belongs to everyone who built the MTS IELTS Practice Hub and who teaches on it: our in-house digital and AI engineering team, our development partners, our Academic team, our teachers and our customer care team, and to the thousands of test-takers whose feedback shaped the platform, from avatar behaviour right through to the decision to add live classes and 1-2-1 tuition.

And we're not standing still. We're converting more of our live IELTS classes into self-access courses so every learner can choose between live teaching and lower-cost self-study, and we're opening up new B2B sales channels so that schools, colleges and universities can offer high-quality IELTS preparation to their own students – and B2B clients can brand it to their own branding, so the product feels “in-house”.

Try the MTS IELTS Practice Hub for yourself at http://www.ieltspracticehub.ai

And if you are an IELTS test centre, or educational establishment that is interested in providing access to the MTS platform for your own test-takers or students, please contact our Associate Director of Business Development Korina Freese at korina.freese@mtsglobal.uk.com to find out more about partnership deals with us.