The English Language Outreach Project is a British Council initiative, run with partner organisations in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine and – soon – Russia.  The project began in September 2006 and the overall aim is to enable partner organisations in participating countries to deliver English language training in appropriate, up- to-date and innovative ways.

Currently we are working with:

			partner libraries in the British Centres, which are libraries run in conjunction with local partners such as universities, local councils and municipalities
			media (including web portals, radio, television and print)
			software companies
			teaching and training organisations
			exam centres
			alumni and professional associations.

The project reaches large audiences of language teachers, students and professionals through networks that the British Council establishes. This ensures that all these groups have access to a wide variety of resources and opportunities for English language development offered by the British Council. There has been a number of beneficial partnerships so far:

			in Poland this year the outreach programme is working with a national television company to promote British Council electronic material
			in Russia this summer the English language outreach partly sponsored a Hornby summer school, which trained teachers from ten countries on how to use ICT in schools – trainers are now disseminating this information to colleagues in-country, and major training events are planned in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine.

A resource package – which includes a European online entry portal, electronic databases, English language events and a collection of new titles – has been introduced to partner libraries in five European countries. Library members from 46 libraries and students from 50 schools across central Europe will be given access to online training courses (either from their educational intuitions or their own homes) to improve their study skills and business English. More have access to distance exams skills training and general English improvement courses.