Working for us

Working for the British Council offers a unique opportunity to gain experience and develop skills in international cultural relations. You will be part of a modern, rapidly changing organisation with worldwide influence and impact. Our jobs offer 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.

Consult our behavioural competencies dictionary.

Equal opportunities and diversity

We are an organisation that values diversity. Please browse our Diversity Unit pages for more information.

We have 7,400 members of staff in offices, teaching centres, libraries and information and resource centres in the UK and more than 100 countries and territories worldwide.

What are the opportunities?

You could work for us:

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

In our global network, jobs combine managerial and professional roles. 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 employees, and finances;
• making visits and travelling within the country to meet working partners and establish new clients and contacts.

Teaching jobs cover TEFL and other academic or vocational subjects.

In the UK you could be working on

• developing and managing relationships with our UK partners;
• providing support to our global network;
• managing our global network and setting its policies and standards.

Junior roles

A minimum requirement for administrative and junior management jobs is previous experience of general administrative tasks, working accurately with figures, and composing 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.

Middle management

For our middle management jobs you will need previous experience of managing people, finance and resources.

Overseas roles

There is a limited number of opportunities for UK staff to be posted overseas. If these opportunities arise, we require extensive work experience. We would expect you to have five or more years' work experience 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.

Teaching jobs

For TEFL jobs you will need a recognised certificate level TEFL qualification e.g. Cambridge ESOL or Trinity TESOL, and at least two years' experience. There are sometimes opportunities for exceptional candidates with a certificate level qualification.