British Council

We love the new mural on our Mexico City Teaching Centre - commissioned to mark 90 years of the British Council and 200 years of UK-Mexico ties. This vibrant artwork was directed by renowned Mexican artist Alex Revilla and brought to life by artist Andrik, and was inspired by the creative vision of our English students. Look there’s a chihuahua in a policeman’s helmet! See what else you can spot, it’s brilliant 😊 #Mexico #BritishCouncil #StreetArt #BritishCouncil90 #Art

Have you heard of Deep Listening? Tiba Khalifa, from #Libya, talked to us about how she gained this important skill during our 90 Youth Voices programme. She told us: "For leaders - especially those working with youth - it’s a transformative skill." Find out more: https://lnkd.in/eaBEaqR6 #DeepListening #Skills #BritishCouncil #90YouthVoices #Leadership

🎉 Wishing everyone a Happy New Year! We proudly celebrated our 90th Anniversary in 2024 and we're looking forward to continuing our work in 2025 - here's to another 90 years! #HappyNewYear #HappyNewYear2025 #BritishCouncil

We’re immensely proud to announce that our colleague, Martin Daltry, has been awarded an OBE in the King’s New Year Honours List for 2025 for services to UK Cultural Relations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.   Martin served as Country Director, Occupied Palestinian Territories from 2018 to 2024, contributing significantly to our work in creating opportunities, promoting education, and preserving culture and heritage. Congratulations, Martin! 🎖️ #NewYear2025 #KingsHonours #BritishCouncil #NewYearHonours

For 90 years we've shared the best the UK has to offer with the rest of the world. Since 1938 we've been collecting works of art, craft and design to promote worldwide British artists, craft practitioners and designers. Explore the collection here: https://bit.ly/4h3qQT1 #BritishCouncil90 #BritishCouncilCollection #Art #Design #CraftPractitioners #BritishCouncil

If you haven’t heard of Monica Mya Maung, you’re in for an incredible story. 📚💪 Monica was a librarian at the British Council Library in Myanmar. She arrived in the country in 1937 and dedicated her life to making the library a cultural asset for the local community. In 1966, the library had to close its doors due to political turmoil in the country. Fearing confiscation, Monica risked everything to hide over 200 library books, protecting them for future generations. The books she rescued became the heart of the library when it reopened in 1977. 🌻 🎥 Watch Yamin Nyi Nyi, our current head of the Myanmar library, narrate the story. 🖱️ https://lnkd.in/gUimt6rp #BritishCouncil90 #Myanmar #BritishCouncil #britishcouncillibrary #books

I’ve been at the British Council for over three years now – no longer a newbie. 2024 was our 90th birthday. We were founded in a time of international friction and competing ideologies. A few wise souls established an organisation to connect people and build understanding and trust. They believed that trust would help create a more peaceful and prosperous world. Today, we work in around 200 countries, on the ground in 100, reaching over 600m people, and connecting them with the UK’s culture, education and Engish language. We have an international network that links to young people, creators, educators, officials, politicians and future leaders. We are designed to operate over the long-term, not constrained by short-term government cycles. My colleagues often work in the most complex places whether in Bangladesh, Iraq, Myanmar, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Sudan, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yemen and many others, and our history is not without tragedy. In July 1940, two detectives were killed by a bomb targeting the British Pavillion at the New York World Fair. In 1971, guards were killed protecting our office in Dhaka during Bangladesh’s liberation war. More lives were lost during a Taliban attack on our office in Kabul in 2011. And there are others including shootings, arrests, jailings. We are grateful to the people who stand with us against those who will go to the most violent ends to disrupt our work. The world in 2025 holds many significant challenges. But that is when the British Council needs to deliver. We have ambitious goals: to rebuild bridges and grow connections, to give young people the skills and opportunities to thrive, and to support progressive and modern partnerships that will support growth. We value our strategic partnership with the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, and are grateful for the funding they provide us, along with support from other UK government departments. And we’ll continue to work closely with the devolved governments in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Like others, our financial model is challenged by inflation, foreign exchange movements, capital controls around the world, and a difficult and volatile environment for income generation (we raise 85% of our funding outside our core government grant). I had hoped that by now we would have a clearer vision for our long-term economic model but there is more work to do to ensure we can deliver impact for the next 90 years. Many thanks to all my colleagues across the British Council for everything you do. You are amazing: full of integrity, dedicated, creative, and human. And my deepest thanks to all our supporters, funders, partners, collaborators, customers and beneficiaries around the world. At the tender age of 90, we are just getting into our stride. We need understanding and trust more than ever and with your help, we will work to deliver that. Happy holidays to all and my best wishes for a peaceful and prosperous 2025.

🎄 Wishing everyone celebrating around the world, especially all our colleagues, friends and partners, a very Happy Christmas! #BritishCouncil #HappyChristmas

Our Next Generation UK 2024 research explores the views and perceptions of young people in the UK. Take a look at the report’s main findings with Christine Wilson, British Council Director of Research and Insight, in our new Voices article: https://bit.ly/3P5Ja1y #NextGenUK2024 #BritishCouncil90 #UKYouth #UK #BritishCouncil #research

Amol Padwad is a former teacher and trainer, a community leader and researcher, and a pioneer of professional development for English language teachers in India. In an in-depth interview with us, he reflects on his career and long-standing relationship with the British Council, returning to his time as a Hornby Scholar at the University of Leeds in the 1990s, and reflecting on our role in promoting multilingualism and social justice in education. Explore the interview, part of our new Oral History Collection, here: https://lnkd.in/gtYcB4x9  #BritishCouncilOralHistories #BritishCouncil90 #ELT #India #BritishCouncil