Working for the British Council offers you a unique opportunity to gain experience and develop skills in international cultural and educational relations. You will be part of a modern, rapidly changing organisation with worldwide influence and impact. Council jobs offers you a scope for versatility, initiative and creativity in a stimulating and supportive environment.

You will be encouraged to pursue your personal and professional development via training, on-the-job-coaching, and individual study using the wide range of materials and media from our Open Learning Centre.

What do we do?
We are the UK's international organisation for educational and cultural relations. We manage a huge range of activities covering the arts, science, technology and education.

Through our work we aim to build and develop long-term relationships with governments, organisations and peoples in order to provide mutual benefit, and promote a wider knowledge of the UK and the English language.

Where are we?

			There are Council offices in 233 towns and cities within 109 countries worldwide, run by approximately 5,500 staff
			Around 1,000 of us are based in the UK: at our headquarters in London and Manchester, and at offices in Oxford, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast and other UK university centres.

What are the opportunites?
You could work with us:

			overseas: as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL)
			overseas: teaching or lecturing in any discipline in a non-Council educational institution
			in the UK or overseas in administrative, management or project management roles at various levels.

What might you be doing?
Teaching jobs overseas cover TEFL and other academic or vocational subjects. In a non-teaching job in the UK you could be working on:  

			developing and managing key relationships with our UK partners
			providing support to our overseas operations
			managing our global network and setting its policies and standards

Non-teaching jobs overseas combine managerial and professional roles. As a new recruit from the UK you could be involved in:

			planning and managing training awards or programmes for visiting specialists
			project pursuit and management
			arranging arts events
			managing the office, its staff, and finances
			making visits and travelling within the country to meet working partners and establish new clients and contacts.

We value diversity so you must be sensitive to cross-cultural issues.

If you are not a graduate we would expect you to have gained some workplace experience or to have at least GCSE level qualifications in English and mathematics before you apply for a Council job in the UK. If you are a new graduate, a Council job in the UK is likely to be most suitable for you. We have no preferred subject for your first degree.

What skills and experience are we looking for?
We value diversity so you must be sensitive to cross-cultural issues.

A minimum requirement for administrative and junior management jobs is previous experience of general administrative tasks, working accurately with figures, and composing simple letters in English which are clearly expressed and appropriately constructed. If you are a new graduate we have no subject preference for your first degree. For our middle management jobs you will need previous experience of managing people, finance and resources.

Our jobs overseas require work experience as well as a first degree. At this level we expect you to have at least four or five years' work experience after graduating and to have managed staff and finances. We are particularly interested if you have project management experience and hard language fluency, e.g. Arabic, Japanese, Mandarin or Russian. Our specialist project management jobs are only suitable for experienced professionals.

For TEFL jobs you will need a diploma level TEFL qualification and at least two years' experience and expertise in a specialist area. There are sometimes opportunites for exceptional candidates with a certificate level qualification.