• The British Council, working in Kazakhstan since 1994, promotes English language learning and teaching, providing local teachers with professional development and networking opportunities. Currently the English for Teachers, Teachers for English project is providing teacher development on a national scale with priority given to teachers in rural areas.  The Teacher Knowledge Test programme focuses on assessment of teachers’ professional knowledge and is being proposed for national adoption as a measure of teacher professional competency. The British Council works on all of its ELT projects in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Science (MOES), the In-service Teacher Training Institutes (INSETTI), and the National English Teachers’ Association (NATEK). 
• If you need to take a UK exam, including IELTS, the Cambridge English suite, Distance learning and Professional exams (ACCA, CFA, and CIPS) the British Council can help. They also provide information about studying in the UK, offer seminars on a range of education-related topics and host presentations by UK educational institutions. 
• The FCO Chevening Scholarship is operated by the British Council on behalf of the FCO. Chevening is a prestigious award scheme for young professionals from around the world, including Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, who would like to receive a Master’s degree in the UK. 
• The British Council is involved in education and arts partnership projects, working to advance debate and to share knowledge and skills. They aim to create a wider appreciation of the UK as a valued partner in addressing key reform agendas and promoting sustainable development. Partnership projects seek to encourage innovation, quality and effectiveness in the education sector; they currently provide support to the education reform through regional programmes: Connecting Classrooms (secondary education), Skills for Employability (vocational) and International Strategic Partnerships In Research and Education (higher education).
• The British Council’s active arts programme brings the most innovative and dynamic creative output from the UK to the people of Kazakhstan. They run arts events every year, working with local partners and sponsors in the fields of film, music, literature, drama, dance and the visual arts.  
• Feedback from our Chevening Fellowship Alumnee Rassul Rakhimov, Presidentail Administration, Finance and Investment in Low Carbon Economy, University of Edinburgh, Jan-Apr, 2009.

"First of all, I would like to thank the British Embassy Astana, the British Council and the University of Edinburgh for the opportunity to participate in the course. It has proved useful as well as pleasant. The trip itself was a bit tiring with a long waiting in Moscow but the welcome meeting in London was very generous and hospitable, people’s attitude friendly and their answers to my questions very helpful. Also, I have found that the branch of the British Council in Kazakhstan has done their job very well in terms of informing me about peculiarities of air travel within Britain, especially with BMI Airlines, so that I didn’t have any troubles with paying for excess luggage and so on.

The University of Edinburgh has done their best to provide us with everything we needed for the course, including a very generous welcome meeting along with a brief guided tour throughout the centre of the city, laptops and apartments with wifi almost in the city centre, 24 hour access to the university libraries and other academic resources. People were friendly and treated us respectfully.

I am very much satisfied with the course for it has provided me with an insight into the UK current policy to support renewables and also allowed to have a unique opportunity to have a 2-week-internship at the Department of Energy and Climate Change at the Scottish Government.

It is a happy coincidence that Kazakhstan has ratified the Kyoto Protocol by the time I came back home. Now I hope to be actively engaged in work associated with preparing the country’s position for negations at the Copenhagen conference".