British Council partnerships

FCDO is a department of the British government which works globally addressing a number of different social problems. British Council and FCDO partnered on the Global Schools Partnership (GSP) programme, which was a programme that promoted global education through curriculum. GSP has awarded final grants to schools, but will continue to provide support and advice to schools completing their grant activity until March 2013.

NBI is a voluntary group of leading national and multi-national companies, working together towards sustainable growth and development in South Africa through partnerships, practical programmes and policy engagement. NBI is involved in the British Council’s Skills for Employability programme, through which they are helping facilitate our policy dialogues with local government and business.

DHET is the South African government department of Higher Education and Training. British Council and DHET have partnered to work on two of the British Council’s Skills for Employability programmes – Policy Dialogues in efforts to address skills shortages, as well as through the Enterprise Challenge.

The DBE is the South African government department for primary and high education. We have joined forces to support the DBE’s Literacy and Numeracy Strategy specifically for English, using our English teaching products. In August 2012, the partnership saw us jointly host the first Certificate in Primary English Language Teaching (CiPELT) course.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival hosts the annual Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference (EWWC) where writers and authors gather to debate various topics related to the industry. To mark the Conference’s 50th anniversary, Edinburgh International Book Festival and British Council have partnered to host 14 satellite conferences around the world between 2012 and 2013, including South Africa in September 2012

The Department of Environmental Affairs in South Africa established Indalo Yethu with the objective of developing and implementing the National Environmental Awareness Campaign. Ahead of COP17 in Durban, South Africa, Indalo Yethu partnered with British Council and other organisations to create awareness in disadvantaged communities about Climate Change through an exciting project, the Climate Train. The Climate Train travelled a number of South African communities in an effort to add the voices of the disadvantaged to the COP17.

This community organisation aims to create a sustainable network of youth artists nationally and internationally through which jobs and new skills are created; and through which arts products and arts related information can be distributed. In 2011, Heal the Hood and British Council partnered on the ‘Mixing It Up’, a hip hop dance theatre showcase committed to elevating and supporting the growth of hip hop dance theatre in South Africa.

The Hub offers entrepreneurs a space to work, learn, and collaborate; offering entrepreneurs a creative, open plan, and dynamic space for them to turn their ideas into a reality. British Council and The Hub hosted Culture Shift where they brought together professionals in the creative economy, enterprise, technology, and design, to a creative and dynamic event to challenge them to build proof-of-concept solutions for problems facing creative and cultural sectors.

A project of the Pick n Pay Group, one of Africa’s largest successful retailers of food, general merchandise and clothing; the School Club is an innovative programme designed to assist educators achieve their classroom objectives by providing meaningful educational content. Through this partnership, the British Council and Pick n Pay have contributed high quality primary school teaching and learning resources for the teaching of English in the Foundation Phase.