The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries. We do this by making a positive contribution to the UK and the countries we work with – changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust.
The English Channel is a British Council video-based platform for developing English language and entrepreneurial skills.
The website is organised in two main sections: Learn English and Building Career Skills.
Learn English offers contemporary arts content with interactive English language practice. Through a variety of film, music and lifestyle videos, you can develop your English skills and further explore th themes and language.
Build Career Skills is the ideal platform for students, young professionals and new entrepreneurs and for all who want to expand their knowledge and knowhow. Here you can access a variety of informative and practical content and monitor your progress, enhancing your grasp of key-skills and ideas to help you through your career or business. This section covers topics such as presentation skills, developing business plans, preparing business pitches, relationship building and networking, and more.
Both sections of the site are free of charge, requiring only a fast and easy registration to access all the material.
All videos offer a series of questions and tasks which will help you practice your understanding of new concepts, skills and vocabulary.
Videos are organised in easy-to-access packs. After each pack, you can access a summary sheet which will help you revise key learning points.
Users can easily track their progress and monitor completion rates in both sections of the website. Upon successfully completing the Build Career Skills section, you will receive a certificate of completion.
The English Channel has been developed in partnership with the Creative Spark: Higher Education Enterprise Programme and is one of the English language tools offered to project participants.
The Build Your Career section on The English Channel website directly corresponds to entrepreneurial skills being developed within Creative Spark activities. For more information about the programme please visit Creative Spark page.
In 2020 the British Council has launched the online Professional Skills course designed for students, recent graduates and new entrepreneurs. This course provides twenty hours of self-study, and is designed to additionally support users in developing English language skills
Functionality and interactions
- The English Channel curates the best of professional and entrepreneurial content from our partners who lead in the field, and through these presents authentic, real examples of the English language in use, as well as real-world business and career tips
- Viewers interact with these videos and, through exercises created by our experts, enhance their language skills and aid their retention of the actionable content
- Videos in the course units have been chosen for both their suitability as language presentation contexts and for their relevant content for users who wish to examine different business and entrepreneurial strategies
- In this twenty hour course the twenty units complement the videos and interactive content found within the learning packs
- As the course progresses, new language is introduced, and previous language revised, ensuring that the content of lessons is easy to recall and use.
Learning Outcomes
- This is an English for specific purposes course in a professional-skills context, combined with interactive pedagogy and authentic content, taking the user from A2 to B1 in terms of language use and skills-development
- Each unit has a contemporary, real-life focus on new developments in the world of work, as well as offering advice from recognised professional experts in business skills
- After each unit, users will find their vocabulary and command of key structures growing in sophistication
- By the end of the course, users will have significantly developed their language skills, and will also be able to speak confidently about the modern world of work and their own ambitions and plans for career progress
Registration link: https://theenglishchannel.britishcouncil.org/professional-skills