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Our highly successful English language assessment partnership, jointly owned by the British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia and Cambridge English Language Assessment, is celebrating its 25th year in 2014. IELTS is a test for people who intend to study or work in countries where English is a main language for communication. Last year well over two million IELTS tests were taken in over 135 countries. IELTS has grown to become the world’s most popular English language test for higher education and global migration.

The British Council and HSBC have built a powerful partnership to support communities across the world – creating opportunities for young people, connecting them and celebrating cultures. This year, HSBC sponsored the Lucian Freud exhibition at MASP São Paulo as part of Transform – a four-year British Council programme deepening the level of cultural relations in the arts between the UK and Brazil.

The Global Innovation Initiative, in partnership with the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the US Department of State and the Institute of International Education, launched this year, initiating 23 new multilateral research partnerships between universities in the UK, US, Brazil, China, India and Indonesia. The Global Innovation Initiative will award grants to university consortia focusing on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related issues of global significance.

The British Council was one of the first partners to join FutureLearn, the first UK-led social learning platform offering massive open online courses (MOOCs) from world-renowned learning and cultural partners such as the Open University, the British Library and the British Museum. FutureLearn went live in September 2013, giving learners around the world the opportunity to learn through conversation. The British Council’s first course – Exploring English: Language and Culture – will begin on the platform in September 2014.

Working with the UK government’s GREAT Britain campaign, the British Council is raising awareness and promoting the UK’s strengths in English, education and culture. Co-operating with the relevant UK government departments and bodies: Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), BIS, Cabinet Office, Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) and VisitBritain we optimise our impact, contributing to economic growth and enhancing cultural relations.

The British Council, in partnership with Premiership Rugby and Social Services for Industry (SESI) in Brazil, is supporting the development and growth of rugby with the innovative Try Rugby programme. 350 teachers and volunteer coaches have been trained to deliver coaching with over 54,000 young people and adults reached through the programme so far. As well as increasing overall participation the programme uses rugby’s culture and core values to drive educational, health and social change through youth development.

We are proud to have welcomed BP as a Founder Sponsor for the programme developed by the British Council for the UK–Russia Year of Culture 2014. The past year has also seen further collaboration in Angola with the signing of an agreement to provide English language training to over 150 teachers at the Luanda Institute of Sciences and Higher Education.

Now in its seventh year, our successful partnership with the Premier League, Premier Skills, uses football to develop a brighter future for young people around the world. Since 2007, Premier Skills has trained 2,300 coaches and reached 500,000 young people. It aims to expand to cover 25 countries by 2016, reaching another 300,000 young people in the process.

BIRAX (the Britain Israel Research and Academic Exchange Partnership) is a £10 million initiative of the British Council and British Embassy in Israel in collaboration with the Pears Foundation and the United Jewish Israel Appeal (UJIA). Together we are co-ordinating a large fund to support cutting-edge research into regenerative medicine using stem cell therapies. Over £4 million has been committed to seven research projects in the UK and Israel. The second call, launched by Prime Minister David Cameron in March 2014, will fund a further set of projects.

The British Council has signed an agreement with Qatar Foundation for a pilot project to promote the teaching of Arabic language and culture in UK schools. The pilot project will lay the foundations of a five-year programme significantly increasing the number of students learning Arabic in the UK. Simultaneously the project will ensure a growth in the number of teachers of Arabic both from an Arabic-speaking and non-Arabic-speaking background, and improve understanding of the Arab world across the UK.

Our highly innovative English partnership with Plan Ceibal in Uruguay is delivering 2,000 remote English lessons each week to 50,000 students in Uruguayan state primary schools, using remote teachers based in Montevideo, Argentina and the Philippines. Plan Ceibal has given laptops to every child in state schools throughout Uruguay and the project makes use of digital materials downloaded onto the laptops with teachers delivering their lessons using high quality video-conferencing equipment.

The challenge of delivering the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme is enormous. We are very pleased to further develop our long-standing National Agency partnership with Ecorys UK over the next seven years. Funded by the European Commission, Erasmus+ will provide £800 million to support UK students and staff to experience international studying, teaching and volunteering

opportunities in Europe and beyond.

The British Council is working closely with City & Guilds in realising the benefits of the Memorandum of Understanding between the UAE and the UK. The initiative involves a number of UK awarding bodies, including City and Guilds, collaborating with the UAE’s National Qualifications Authority, paving the way for mutual recognition of qualifications at Gulf-wide level.

This year, BG Tanzania strengthened an existing partnership, signing an agreement with the British Council to deliver the International Postgraduate Scholarship Scheme for Geoscience and Engineering. During 2014 –15, the scheme will offer ten valuable scholarships to Tanzanian graduates to study for masters degrees in UK universities.