The British Council is the UK’s official agency for building trust between the UK and other countries through developing cultural and educational links and providing educational opportunities.

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Newton Freire, Country Director Diageo España y Portu-
galNewton Freire, Country Director Diageo España y
Portugal
Rod Pryde, Director, British Council Spain.
The British Council is the UK’s official agency for buil-
ding trust between the UK and other countries throu-
gh developing cultural and educational links and
providing educational opportunities. British Council
Spain is one of our biggest global operations by
virtue of our long-established presence, and Spain’s
significant appetite for what we offer. Across the
country, the demand for English language, UK arts,
UK qualifications and study is high.
British Council, that began its operations in Spain in
1940, manages a network of 17 centres across Spain
and the only fully-fledged British Council School.
Founded over 70 years ago, it has around 2,000 pupils
and is seen as one of the leading private schools in
Spain and as a model of effective bilingual and bicul-
tural education.
British Council is a well-known institution in Spain
to learn English, but what does Spain represent in
your business?
As you know Spain attaches great importance to
proficiency in English, so we aim to offer high-quality
teaching and assessment and to build up the experti-
se of Spanish teachers through managing teacher
development programmes for national and regional
ministries of education, convening conferences and
events, and commissioning research to support infor-
med policymaking.
Spain is a major provider of students to the UK with
some 9000 students in Higher Education and another
40.000 on English language courses. We lead the UK’s
education work with Spain and aim for the UK to be
seen as a valuable partner and an excellent study
destination. We also provide assistance to UK educa-
tion institutions in Spain and to British Schools, parti-
cularly the 65 members of the National Association of
British Schools in Spain (NABSS).
In the arts we work as facilitators and brokers, develo-
ping relationships with the leading cultural institu-
tions and programmers across Spain to facilitate
uptake of UK talent and to showcase UK creativity.
Which are some of the relevant projects that you
have developed in Spain?
Our Bilingual Schools project in partnership with the
Spanish Ministry of Education and regional education
authorities was launched 17 years ago to share more
widely the expertise gained in the British Council
School. This now reaches 220,000 students in state
schools across 11 Spanish regions, and many other
regions have successfully launched similar program-
mes, with the result that Spain is now a global leader
in bilingual education.
British Council has released a new application
called Aptis, what can you tell us about the new
ways of learning in British Council?
I expect that we’ll see continued demand for our
services but a growing need for more flexibility, a
stronger focus on value and much more emphasis on
the digital dimension through for example more
online and blended courses, more development of
apps and virtual networks and further development
and promotion of new initiatives such as Aptis, our
100% British Council branded online examination.
From your point of view as Director, do you belie-
ve that there is a barrier which limits trade and
investment between Spain and the United King-
dom?
I don’t see many barriers, other than our ability to
continue to respond appropriately to changing
patterns of demand and to new imperatives arising
such as the need to be seen to be even-handed in
providing opportunities to UK partners.
So, we can say that there are more favourable
factors than barriers?
We are fortunate that Spain is well-disposed towards
the UK, and has significant appetite for British culture,
education, arts and the English language. British crea-
tivity is widely recognised in Spain, for example, and
the UK is frequently the partner of choice in the crea-
tive industries. Our commitment over more than 70
years in Spain means that we are generally seen as a
reliable partner and service provider and that we
enjoy good access to key figures.
How does the British Chamber of Commerce in
Spain help to contribute to these favourable
factors?
The British Chamber provides excellent networking
opportunities for senior colleagues and myself,
helping to promote the development of our business,
and enabling us to make new connections. We’re also
delighted to partner directly with the Chamber in
events such as the Social Media event coming up in
February.
It appears that little by little we are managing to
come out of the crisis that has especially affected
Spain since 2008. How has the British Council
survived through these hard times and how have
they managed to avoid it?
The economic crisis has made us realise that we need
to make sure that we offer value and excellent service
in everything we do, and that we have a better
understanding of exactly what our partners and
customers want from us. It is clear, for example, that
there is growing demand for a wide range of reputa-
ble English certification and accreditation and for
more flexible and affordable teacher development
models, and that patterns of demand for English are
likely to change rapidly in coming years. At the same
time this is a good moment for the UK and Spain to
learn from each other in responding to changing
circumstances, as we do for example in sharing UK
expertise in developing more varied and entrepre-
neurial funding models in the arts or in education.
Atendiendo a la Ley Orgánica de Protección de Carácter Personal, Ley Orgánica 15/1999, de 13 de diciembre, ponemos en su conocimiento que este correo está dirigido únicamente a
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Spain is a major provider of stu-
dents to the UK with some 9000
students in Higher Education
and another 40.000 on English
language courses
“
”
The British Chamber provides excellent networking opportunities
for senior colleagues
Rod Pryde, Director, British Council Spain.
“ ”