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The Capacity Building Programme supports the capacity development of existing and emerging cultural leaders and arts practitioners, in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Dalian, Chongqing, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. This includes arts managers, venue managers, presenters, producers, curators, teaching artists, designers, arts/design educators. Its aim is to support the emergence of a more diverse and strategic group of aspiring cultural leaders and arts practitioners and to equip them with the skills to build up new audiences and work effectively internationally.
Climate Cool is a two-year programme, part of British Council’s global International Climate Champions Programme, which aims to harness the power of young people (aged 11 - 45) to spread climate change awareness to millions of people.
The programme targets over 200,000 students and trains over 1,650 journalists and journalism students. Working with schools to disseminate a climate change curriculum and establish a National Climate Change Teaching Training Centre, understanding of climate change issues will improve. University student winners from a sustainable innovation competition will be funded to implement ideas to mitigate climate change and in addition, a network of International Climate Champions will directly engage with thousands of other young people concerned with climate change across the globe. Environmental audits of offices will be conducted in order to encourage low carbon alternatives reaching individuals across society in sectors such as the arts, business, education, science and public services.
In total, the programme aims to spread climate change awareness information to at least 55 million people in 20 cities in China ranging from Beijing and Hong Kong to Kunming, Harbin and Huhhot. It has been developed in cooperation with the Ministry of Science and Technology, Centre for Environment Education and Communication under the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the China Metrological Administration.
Connecting Classrooms is the global school partnership programme which aims to promote global citizenship by developing children and young people in the UK and around the world who have the skills and understanding to contribute positively, in life and work, to a global society. This includes improving the necessary leadership skills to support the strong global dimension to be instilled into the learning experience of young people, supporting the development of global citizens, both within the curriculum and the wider school system and prioritising the knowledge, skills and understanding required to equip young people for life in a global society and work in a global economy.
The programme in China is based around links between districts in the UK and China which allow schools and their learners, teachers and head teachers to develop long-term, sustainable relationships reaching over 41 cities and districts.
The linked districts will receive training from the British Council on school partnerships including for an International School Award, Leadership project training heads in the international dimension, and large-scale curriculum projects including Dreams and Teams and Rivers of the World.
Connecting Classrooms will also deliver projects with Chinese Language Assistants, English Language Assistants, Immersion Courses, Teachers International Professional Development and Prime Minister’s Global Fellowship.
Given the rich cultural heritage of both China and the UK, cultural organisations in both countries can benefit from exchanging ideas and sharing their cultural history with partners from the other country.
Connections through Culture is a programme designed to bring about and support such exchanges with the eventual aim of building long lasting relationships and developing exciting cultural collaborations between organisations in China and the UK. The programme does this through offering market intelligence, advisory, networking and brokering services. The programme’s website features profiles of arts organisations in both countries to help institutions find partners when planning cultural events. The programme also offers a limited number of grants to enable members of cultural organisations to visit their counterparts in China or the UK to develop projects, exchange skills or see each other’s work.
At end of 2008, the programme had 983 culture and arts organisations in the UK, China and elsewhere as members involving 2,000 arts professionals. Events in 2009 include a seminar on marketing literature and study visits for museum managers and performing arts venue managers.
http://ctc.britishcouncil.org.cn
The programme aimed to build a professional interactive platform for creative entrepreneurs in China and UK.
The programme regularly brings outstanding British entrepreneurs to China for networking and experience sharing. In 2009, such forums will be held in Beijing, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong with a focus on fashion, design and animation. The programme also organize annual ‘International Young Entrepreneur Award ’ in which the winner from China travels to the UK to meet other outstanding entrepreneurs from around the world and to discuss collaboration with UK entrepreneurs. Creative entrepreneurs in China can also keep up to date with UK Creative Industry, access to learning materials and share and interact with counterparts via our website.
Operating in the arts, design, publishing, media and interactive industries, creative entrepreneurs are people straddling the divide between artistic talent and the market whether for profit or not.
http://ce.britishcouncil.org.cn
As part of the global celebration of one of the greatest UK scientists, Charles Darwin, the British Council’s Darwin Now project showcases a series of integrated activities consisting of evolution-themed workshops, scientist lectures, widescreen films, theatre and science-related demonstrations as well as exhibitions on his life and theory reaching Xian, Chongqing, Shanghai, Fuzhou and Hong Kong in 2009. In July, a selected team of students from China will participate in the International Student Summit at the Natural History Museum in London.
Darwin, a man who changed and shocked the world 150 years ago by his insight on human evolution through the publishing of the book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, continues to be influential today and still provokes controversy. Darwin Now provides an opportunity to explore the ideas that lie at the heart of evolutionary theory in an unprejudiced and open way.
UK education is internationally recognised for its rigorous academic standards, innovation and career-enhancing qualities. The Education UK programme provides students with the information required to make an informed choice about studying in the UK and provides the support needed to make it a truly rewarding experience. The Education UK programme is also committed to enhance the China-UK international cooperation among different educational organisations in the UK, the mainland China and Hong Kong
The Education UK programme regularly holds various student facing activities in cities throughout mainland China and Hong Kong including campus presentations and competitions, smart talks and exhibitions, during which interested students can speak directly to representatives from UK education institutions and other educational organisations and get first-hand insight, guidance and support.
Education UK also organises pre-departure briefings for students leaving China to study in the UK and works closely with the visa sections of the British Embassy and Consulates General to ensure that students get up-to-date information about the student visa application. In addition, Education UK works with education agents around China and Hong Kong to ensure that they deliver accurate information about studying in the UK to the public. In Hong Kong, it also works directly with schools and other local education institutions to provide information to students and their careers counsellors about studying in the UK, or studying UK courses in Hong Kong.
Education UK supports UK institutions in building relations in China and Hong Kong and provides an intelligence service to the education sector.
More information is available through the dedicated websites: www.educationuk.cn (Chinese language) and www.educationuk.org.hk (English language).
The British Council is the largest English teaching organisation in the world, the ambition is clear: “Every learner and teacher in the world should have access to the English materials, expertise and resource from the UK.”
From 2009, British Council in China will provide teacher training and regular workshops to English teachers to support them in their daily work with practical hands on advice in a range of popular and heated topics and to establish a network for teaching skills, communications and professional development. A series of activities for learners will be delivered as well through the media.
Additionally, two websites managed by the British Council, namely EnglishOnline (www.Englishonline.org.cn) and TeachingEnglish (http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/group/china), will provide communication platforms for both learners and teachers to access the latest English teaching knowledge, exchange ideas and share best practices.
The Sino-UK Higher Education Collaboration Programme began in December 1996. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in 1997 between the Ministry of Education and the Higher Education Funding Council for England to support the programme. The Programme contributes to the reform and development of higher education in the UK and China by enabling experience learning and strengthening strategic collaboration that enhances the quality and standards of higher education in teaching, learning and research.
Activity over the 13 years include collaboration through high-level policy dialogues, workshops, sharing of information and experience, study visits, collaborative and pilot projects and a regular Forum of UK Vice Chancellors and Chinese Presidents. These cover a variety of topics such as: quality assessment of research and postgraduate education, leadership development, national policy on HE management, strategic and operational planning, links with business, management and development, e-collaboration/e-learning and science park collaboration.
In 2009-10, the Higher Education project will involve policy research on Higher Education in Regional Development, Scotland-China Higher Education Research Partnership for PhD studies and university leadership development programmes through partnerships.
The London Book Fair is a large book-publishing trade fair held annually, second only to Frankfurt Book Fair. British Council is the official partner for the Market Focus at the London Book Fair. The London Book Fair and the British Council are signatories to an initial memorandum of agreement regarding the 2012 London Book Fair Market Focus with General Administration, Press & Publications People’s Republic of China.
In order to stimulate greater exchange of literature between the UK and China ahead of 2012, the British Council is organising a variety of events in 2009 to introduce British writers to Chinese readers. Timed to run alongside the Beijing International Book Fair, UK’s bestselling novelist Mike Gayle visited China in September 2009 to hold public readings and discussions about literature. Later in the year more reading events will be held at literature festivals around China and outreach activities held online to bring new British writing to the online community.
Premier Skills is an innovative football coaching and English language development project jointly run by the Premier League and the British Council. Premier Skills, operated in 15 countries worldwide since 2007, not only helps develop the coaching skills of young male and female coaches, but also teaches them to use football as a tool for skills and community development. The training project in China is held from May to August 2009 in four cities — Dalian, Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong. Five trained teachers from each city will be selected to visit Shanghai in summer 2010 for a higher-level training programme.
More than 160 physical education teachers from primary and secondary schools across China in both urban and rural areas, will learn about leadership, coaching skills, fitness, nutrition and sporting-event management through the coaching programs. The project strongly accords with current education trends in China and focuses on "whole student" development. We anticipate over 20,000 school children will benefit from the coaching programmes through these trained teachers.
As part of the training component of the course, participants will be able to develop their English language skills and subsequently build upon these using the suite of Premier Skills multi-media English language materials. These include a dedicated Premier Skills website http://premierskills.britishcouncil.org , which features an online community space for participants.
Skills for Social Entrepreneurs is a large-scale global project initiated by the British Council, which will last for 3 years from 2009 until 2012. The countries currently involved include China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippine, Turkey, and Serbia with many others in Asia and Europe keen to take part.
The purpose of the project is to equip NGO practitioners, community leaders, young people and potential or existing social entrepreneurs with skills to adopt social enterprise approaches to meet social needs and strengthen local communities. The project will provide training on social enterprise for people who are working to make a difference in their communities. They in turn will be able to set up businesses, or apply business practices in their organisations leading to new employment opportunities, more wealth and better social services in their community. They will link up with existing networks of social entrepreneurs in the UK and around the world for peer support, mentoring and funding opportunities.
The project is being rolled out in China from April 2009. In partnership with YouChange and Narada Foundation, the British Council trained125 potential or existing social entrepreneurs in China in 2009. The training has been expanded to other cities such as Xian, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chengdu.
The award scheme will continue to be part of the project. YouChange will sponsor another RMB 1 million to fund excellent social enterprise business plans. Narada Foundation will also contribute funding of RMB 1 million into the award scheme to support excellent social enterprises working on post-earthquake rebuilding projects to promote their development in disaster relief.
Skills for Social Entrepreneurs project aims at training 600 existing or potential social entrepreneurs in China from 2009 to 2012.
* Note: The social enterprise sector in the UK is one of the most successful and vibrant in the world with currently over 60,000 social enterprises which employ 475,000 people and a further 300,000 work on a voluntary basis. Annually, they generate more than £27 billion turnover and contribute £8.4 billion to GDP (1% of the total GDP).
Turner from the Tate Collection was the British Council’s most ambitious visual arts exhibition in China to date and a landmark in cultural relations between China and the UK. Comprising 112 major works exhibited at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing from April to June 2009, it was the largest and most comprehensive collection of the works of a single British artist ever presented in China. It was also one of the longest running shows of international art masterpieces ever held at the National Art Museum of China.
Over 200,000 visitors attended the exhibition, not only from Beijing but from many other regions in China. Over 25,000 students visited the exhibition and 27,000 families took advantage of the exhibition’s education programme in which materials produced for children marked one of the many visitor-friendly highlights of the exhibition.
The exhibition was widely praised in China’s art community for bringing to China images that were previously only accessible through art textbooks. Among the exhibition’s many services for visitors were a lecture series on Turner by well-known art critics, volunteer guides and an illustrated catalogue.
Ten years in the planning, the exhibition was organised by the British Council, Tate Britain and the National Art Museum of China and timed to build upon the success of the Terracotta Warriors exhibition held in London in 2008.
The British Council has an outstanding record of working with governments, ministries of education and other sponsoring and partner agencies around the world to design and implement projects that transform the quality of English language teaching and learning in their countries.
In mainland China, the British Council engages with government departments for education at national, municipal and provincial levels. In addition, the British Council engages with state institutions responsible for education, teachers’ associations, universities and teacher training colleges and schools.
Activities in this area are designed to provide decision-makers with the up-to-date information they need to make decisions for the betterment of English language education in China, and include the following: partnered research symposia exploring cutting edge areas of English language teaching and learning; joint research with partners on issues relating to the teaching and learning of English; and the publication of research in English language teaching and learning.
From 1 May to 31 October 2010, above 200 countries and organisations will participate in the World Expo in Shanghai, China. An estimated 70 million people will visit the Expo over the six months. The enclosed Expo Park covers 3.28 km2 of land along the Huangpu River which will be the largest World Expo ever, and events will take place across Shanghai and beyond.
In the lead up to Expo and through 2010, much of the British Council’s project work across China will focus on Expo and its theme of Better City, Better Life. The cultural and educational projects involved will enhance the UK’s reputation in cultural relations and build enduring engagement between the people of China and the UK.
Between 2008 and 2010, as part of the UK-China 400 exchange programme organised by the British Council and China Youth Federation, 400 young people from the UK and 400 young people from China selected for their leadership qualities, will visit each other’s countries. During their visits they will meet with leaders, experts and practitioners in the areas of youth and community development, political and business leadership, environment and healthy living, and creativity and cultural innovation to further develop their understanding and skills. The participants will visit Beijing or London, and at least two other cities or districts in that country.
UK-China 400 is the result of an agreement made between Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Premier Wen Jiabao in January 2008. The programme aims to strengthen understanding and levels of trust between people in the UK and China whilst developing existing and new district links as well as broadening the international perspective of young people.
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