June 2021
My warmest wishes to all the friends and partners of the British Council in the Netherlands.
After 5 years leading the British Council’s work in youth leadership in Mexico, I am thrilled to take on the role of Country Director in the Netherlands. Since I arrived, my priority has been to meet all our partners and main contacts to learn about our work together and to further develop friendly relations. There are still so many of you to meet and I am looking forward to learning about your work and finding exciting ways for us to collaborate.
The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We work in more than 100 countries, connecting millions of people with the United Kingdom through programmes and services in the English language, arts, education and culture.
There can be no doubt that the global challenges we are facing like the Covid-19 pandemic and the climate crisis mean that the need for people, organisations and nations to make quality connections is more important than it perhaps has ever been. Through our history and experience the British Council is uniquely placed to hold this important cultural space and to do it at scale. Looking ahead, we will continue to do this by staying true to our values: quality, customer care and professionalism, but also through an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion focus across all our work. I am certain that we will continue creating and strengthening our bonds with the Dutch people and institutions by innovating and diversifying the ways that we engage with you for the years to come.
The need to social distance seems to run counter to the idea of cultural relations but the talented team in the Netherlands continue to find ways to deliver our work safely and creatively. Over the last couple of months over 10,000 young people in the Netherlands have taken an English exam with us, creating opportunities for them to develop new opportunities and find pathways to better lives.
You can find much more information about all our work in Arts, Education and Society and Exams and engage with us on our social media channels (Facebook and Twitter). Whether you are discovering us for the first time or are a long-term friend, we hope you stay with us for many years to come.
It’s wonderful to be here and it’s great to meet you.
Jennifer