The British Council and its Two Decades of Cultural and Educational Opportunities

The British Council Office in Cuba, which is an international organization of the United Kingdom and North Ireland for the cultural relations and educational opportunities, is celebrating two decades of its presence and work in Cuba.

It has enabled the development of programs and projects devised for the exchange and training on sectors linked to the culture, arts, education and science, respectively.

Since its opening in 1998, it has carried out a wide work along with the local Ministries of Culture, Education, Higher Education, Foreign Trade and Investment, the ICRT, as well as the artistic, educational and community institutions not only in Havana but also in an increasing quantity of provinces nationwide.

As part of the work on the development of skills linked to the English language teaching and the joint efforts to contribute to the implementation of the new local languages policy, the British Council and the local Higher Education Ministry has enabled spaces for the training and exchange by British experts and experienced professors.

This includes the local just graduated and university students in their last years of their pedagogical careers, linked to the English-language teaching.

The related workshops has acquired diverse modalities, including the beginning of actions through the remote teaching on internet as part of an academic course delivered by teachers from Argentina and participants from the local Pedagogical Sciences University.

Courses and workshops have reached some universities of the nation that receive the training carried out by British experts every other year who are part of the ETL Road Show (the English training by careers), the higher event for the exchange which includes the specialists from all Cuba through 4 universities which work as related training centers.

The Road Show alternates with the ELT Conference (Conference for the English-language teaching) where the professors talk and discuss about their achievements and challenges on the language learning process, along with the presence of teachers invited from the United Kingdom. The other event of international presence, which allows sharing spaces, is the Education World Forum in London where the British Council of Cuba has attended, along with the Higher Education Ministry.

In addition, it has been significant the chance that Cubans professionals can get international certificates on English language levels through the Cambridge examinations system which allow them to present their candidatures for postgraduate studies in international renown universities in any part of the world. Therefore, more than 1000 professionals have obtained high qualifications during the last five years through those examinations.

On the other hand, there have been nearly 600 specialized certificates for English-language teachers like the TKT and other 100 ones like the Professional Awards (highly specialized training for experienced English-language professors).

The art has been another of the areas of higher development of actions for the related collaboration offered by the British Council in Cuba, including the significant projects and workshops about the theater, dance, music and movie.

There have been projects created from that work such as the one entitled ´Islas Creativas´ (Creative Islands) which has enabled to develop skills on the conceptualization and choreographic composition and showing magistral plays created by British choreographers for the talented dancers of the Contemporary Dance of Cuba like the one entitled ´Cámara Chica´ (Small chamber). It gets to all the far-off communities from Guantánamo province to Sandino town in Pinar del Río one and it encourages the audiovisual creation carried out by children for children and young people.

The Royal Court Theater enabled the Cuban young people the search for a close perspective on the Cuban reality from the beginning of the XXI century.

The music has also be part of the related exchanges through some actions like the link of the local Radio Taino news station with the Selector Program as it has been shared different genres and styles of the Contemporary British music with the Cuban audience during the three years of an uninterrupted broadcasting on that musical show in Cuba. Moreover, it has also allowed the creation of related works, which recreate the wide Cuban heritage and its interaction with other current musical rhythms from the Beatles band´s nation.

In addition, Cuba has entered into regional projects like the ones entitled ‘Backstage to the Future´, ´Alquimia´ and ´Selector Pro´ which are aimed at training musicians, sound specialists and live show producers by encouraging the creation of related networks that enable the future development in that area.

During the last years and for the first time in Cuba, the British Council has presented proposals for related projects at the British embassy to Havana and there have been 4 ones to be financed which has broadened the impact and quality of its educational actions exchanged with the local MES (Ministry of Higher Education).

The British Council works with over 100 nations, along with its 7000 people working staff, including its 2000 professors and the thousands of professionals, policy makers and millions of young people working for the English-learning process, sharing their art, education and social programs.