ALTE Full Members take a full, active part in the life of the association and have at least one of their tests audited through the Quality Management System resulting in a Q-Mark.

In order to be a Full Member, organisations must:

• be a legal entity (legally registered in a country)
• have read and agreed with the ALTE constitution
• have an interest and active involvement in language testing
• subscribe to ALTE's Principles of Good Practice
• be accepted by the ALTE Board of Trustees as a candidate for full membership
• produce tests of the language(s) of the country or region that they are registered in. (See Note 1) (They may also produce tests of other languages)
• have been an ALTE Associate Member (or Institutional Affiliate) for at least one year and have taken part in ALTE events and activities - including the Orientation to ALTE Audit System session
• have the Selo Q for at least one of their tests (see Note 2)
• have at least 500 test takers per year (but see Note 3)
• agree to continue attending ALTE events and activities and taking part in the life of the association

Notes

1. The language of the country/region where they are sited is usually a language that has some sort of official recognition as such. This may be a spoken or signed language. The Board of Trustees will work with the organisation in question to determine if the language fulfils this criterion. 

2. Or was a member of ALTE EEIG before the introduction of the Q-Mark in 2008 and is working towards fulfilling the requirements of the quality audit; ALTE Framework will only display tests that have the Q-Mark. Members that have had a resolved audit for a test in the language of their country/region may also request quality audits for any tests they create of other languages.

3. In recognition of ALTE’s support for lesser-used or minoritised languages and cases where there will never be as many as 500 candidates a year, the Board of Trustees will consider including members who provide such tests for full membership, if a successful audit is achieved.

Os benefícios de se tornar um membro pleno são:

• Usar o logo da ALTE
• Certificado de adesão físico e digital
• Registar-se no website da ALTE
• Participar na Gestão de Qualidade da ALTE e no sistema de auditoria (com custo adicional)
• Após uma auditoria, usar o Selo Q, que representa a qualidade da avaliação em línguas
• Possibilidade de realizar uma conferência, permitindo assim a divulgação da instituição e testes de língua
• Possibilidade de acesso aos serviços da Unidade de Validação da ALTE (com um custo adicional)
• Possibilidade de colaborar em projetos
• Aceder a secções do website da ALTE como o fórum eletrónico de discussão
• Convite para comparecer nas conferências bianuais da ALTE e noutros eventos organizados para Membros
• Taxas de delegado reduzidas em certos eventos da ALTE e seminários de formação (cursos)
• Possibilidade de receber, por email e correio-postal, as comunicações da ALTE
• Possibilidade de expor nos eventos da ALTE
• Possibilidade de trabalhar nos Grupos de Interesses Específicos da ALTE
• Possibilidade de estabelecer ligações internacionais através da rede da ALTE e das instituições Europeias.
• Possibilidade de pertencer às Comissões Executiva e Permanente, por eleição
• Convite para comparecer na Reunião Geral Anual da ALTE
• Direitos de voto, por exemplo nas eleições para as comissões ou votos na Reunião Geral Anual

Procedure to become ALTE Full Member

There are 5 main steps to become an ALTE Full Member:

1) Become an ALTE Associate Member

The standard procedure for an organisation to join ALTE requires becoming an ALTE Associate Member (previously an 'Institutional Affiliate') in the first instance. Please visit the page on becoming an ALTE Associate Member for more information about this step, including the application form. 

Organisations should be an Associate Member for a period of one year before applying for full membership.

2) Regularly attend ALTE events

Before an ALTE Associate Member can submit their application to undergo an ALTE audit and become an ALTE Full Member, they need to attend at least two ALTE events (conferences, SIG meetings, courses), and at least one of them needs to be one of the biannual ALTE meeting and conference.

Attending ALTE events and actively participating in the life of the Association is an important part of being an ALTE Associate Member and this will be taken into account by the Board of Trustees when reviewing the applications to become ALTE Full Member. Furthermore, it is not possible to start the procedure to apply for ALTE full membership, as per point 3 below, until at least one of the representatives of the organisation has attended the Orientation to ALTE Audit System session – failure to attend the ‘Orientation to the ALTE Audit System’ session will delay the process of applying for the ALTE audit, which is a pre-requisite to become an ALTE Full Member.

3) Apply for ALTE Full Member status (to be approved by the Board of Trustees)

Before any organisation can apply for ALTE Full Membership status, the Board of Trustees will check that the organisation fulfils the requirements listed above. Please check that your organisation fulfils these criteria, and then request the ALTE Full Membership application form from the ALTE Secretariat.

Complete the application form, and write a formal letter of intent addressed to the ALTE Secretary-General. The letter should be signed by the legal representative of the organisation (the person with legal authority to enter into contracts). More details of what to include in the letter will be found in the ALTE Full Membership application form. 

The above documents shall be reviewed by the ALTE Board of Trustees, during one of the bi-annual Board meetings. (Please check with the ALTE Secretariat if you wish to know when the Board meeting will take place). The Board of Trustees will decide if the organisation is suitable to join the Association as ALTE Full Member and undergo an ALTE audit.

If the application is approved by the Board of Trustees, the organisation becomes a candidate for full membership, but is not yet a Full Member. It can start preparing the documentation in order to undergo the quality (Q-Mark) audit, assisted by the ALTE Secretariat. In the next section, there is some general information about the ALTE audit system and some links to related documents to help with the organisation and familiarisation with the ALTE audit system.

4) Apply and undergo an ALTE audit (of at least one of the organisation’s examinations)

A crucial part of the application to become an ALTE Full Member is to undergo an ALTE audit for at least one of the organisation's exams. See the information about the Q-Mark. Detailed information on the ALTE auditing process and its different stages is available in the ALTE Procedures for Auditing. 

The ALTE Quality Assurance checklists (available in Recursos) may also be helpful as they cover aspects of exams audited - test construction; test administration; marking, grading and results; test analysis and post-examination review. The checklists can be used as a self-assessment tool and it is recommended that they are completed by all organisations who consider applying for ALTE audits (the information about this part of the process can also be found in Section 5 of the PFA document mentioned above).

5) Become an ALTE Full Member

Uma vez completa a auditoria da ALTE com o resultado "Resolvido", a organização vai precisar de completar todos os procedimentos legais e assinar a escritura de adesão para se tornar oficialmente um Membro Pleno da ALTE. O Secretariado da ALTE dará informação com antecedência sobre todos os requisitos e documentos necessários. 

Depois de assinar o Acordo de Adesão, é atribuído ao novo Membro Pleno da ALTE uma referência e logotipo únicos do Selo Q. Este é o indicador de qualidade que membros da organização podem usar para mostrar que os seus exames passaram numa auditoria da ALTE.Para detalhes completos sobre a maneira como o Selo Q pode ser utilizado, por favor consulte Guia do Selo Q.

A organização irá depois ser convidada a preparar uma pequena apresentação sobre a sua própria organização, durante a próxima reunião e conferência da ALTE. Isto ajudará outros membros da ALTE a compreender melhor a maneira como a nova organização funciona e o tipo de exames de língua com que trabalham. A organização também precisará de fazer uma pequena descrição da instituição, que será incluída no website da ALTE.

A taxa anual para Membro Plenos é de 2,250€.As taxas de subscrição anuais da ALTE são pagas em janeiro, após receção da fatura por parte do Secretariado.

Se tem perguntas sobre este procedimento ou qualquer um dos passos acima, por favor contacte o Secretariado da ALTE(secretariat@alte.org).

Note: transfer of membership is usually not permitted - however see the Rules on Transfer of Membership.