In April 2009, the British Council issued a call inviting applications for Skills for Employability travel grants of £1500 from UK educational institutions to explore partnership opportunities in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Reflecting the increasingly international focus of UK educational institutions, there was great interest in these opportunities, with a briefing event in Manchester attended by 14 institutions from around the UK and a total of 16 applications were received.

Applications were assessed by an international panel of experts and travel grants worth a total of £7500 were issued to five UK institutions to visit either Kuwait or the United Arab Emirates (see table below for details).

During their visits the institutions will discuss potential partnerships in specific sectoral areas with institutions that have been hand-picked by the local Ministry of Education.

The UK institutions will submit a partnership project plan, jointly with their prospective partner(s) in Kuwait or the United Arab Emirates, by 31 July 2009. Following a further assessment process using an expert international panel, grants of up to around £15000 per year, for up to maximum of two years, will be awarded in August 2009 to the institutions submitting the best project plans.

The assessment panel are particularly looking for innovative plans that include a strong focus on employer engagement and on joint curricula and qualifications, as well as imaginative approaches to incorporating ICT and sustaining the partnership.

Successful institutions will begin their partnership in August/September 2009 and the progress of each project will be documented on these pages.

Travel Grants