English Connects: UK online ELT awards

Request for proposal from the British Council

Jointly funded by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the British Council and managed by the British Council, English Connects is a programme to connect African youth and the future generation of leaders with the UK through English. It aims to improve the quality of English language teaching and learning, particularly in French and Portuguese speaking countries in Sub-Saharan Africa where the British Council is unrepresented, thus creating opportunities to enable young people to increase their potential to study and improve their employability and networks.

English UK's campaign to keep ID card travel for EU juniors was put to the vote in the House of Lords this week where it was rejected by a frustratingly small 14 votes. While it is disappointing not to have won the vote, the result was not wholly unexpected, and we have many other positives from the campaign, not least the high profile support of cross-bench peers, which was picked up by the national press. 

English UK's campaign to keep ID card travel for ELT students received support in the House of Lords in September, when our suggested amendment to the Immigration and Social Security Bill was debated.

Bath MP Wera Hobhouse highlighted the plight of English language teaching centres during a debate on tourism on 10 September, and followed up her intervention with a letter to Nigel Huddleston, the minister for sport, tourism and heritage.

Over 600 delegates from 45 ELT markets attended the three-day English UK Summit this week.

The first day – which was free to attend for English UK members and international partners – had a full programme of 22 sessions including an address by government exports minister Graham Stuart.

Over days two and three, English UK members, corporate members and agents had around 2,000 online 1-2-1 business meetings.