Strengthening the bachelor programs in English language teaching was the name and aim of a project undertaken by the Ministry of National Education (MEN, for its acronym in Spanish) that was part of the national program of bilingualism. As participants in the project the universities Minuto de Dios, Antonio Narino and Universidad Colombo Americana studied the effects of the strengthening project through the qualitative descriptive and comparative research called Impact on students and professors’ communicative and pedagogical competences during the implementation of the national strengthening project in eight ELT programs from Bogota. After doing grounded theory analysis of the reports issued by the Ministry, interviews of program directors or coordinators and pre and in-service teachers surveys, the conclusions show initiatives on areas such as programs' self-assessment procedures, professors' training and practices directed to developing pre-service teachers’ English proficiency and pedagogical training.