British Council and Citystars Partner Creating New Learning Opportunities for Egyptians
London, 11 July, 2016 – Sir Ciarán Devane, Chief Executive, British Council, and Sheikh Fahd A Shobakshi, Chairman, Citystars signed a partnership agreement today at British Council Spring Gardens, giving young Egyptians a new medium to learn and engage with the global community.
British Council operates in more than 100 countries, connecting millions of people with the United Kingdom through programmes and services in the English language, arts, education and society. Since 1934, British Council has been building links between people and institutions in the UK and around the world, helping to create trust and lay foundations for prosperity and security. .
British Council Egypt is pioneering the concept of operating in a commercial mall, both to engage the public in a shared space and reach those who may have not have accessed our services previously. The new teaching centre is situated on the 6th floor of Citystars mall’s main atrium and will contain ten state-of-the-art classrooms offering both English language learning and Exams facilities.
With an annual footfall of 30+ million customers, Citystars offers an unprecedented opportunity for the British Council, enhanced by a sense of corporate responsibility and a commitment to offer better educational facilities for its stakeholders, including office space holders’ staff, customers, and neigbourhood visitors. Citystars has chosen to partner exclusively with the British Council for English language training.
Sheikh Fahd A Shobakshi, Chairman, Citystars said: “As pioneers in mixed use integrated real estate developments, we are expanding on our social impact and participation. Hence, we approached the British Council as the largest learning organisation in Egypt, in hope of developing optimum educational facilities to serve the neighbourhood visitors and the corporate community such as Orange, Cisco, Barclays among many others.”
Sir Ciarán Devane, Chief Executive, British Council said: “In the last six years alone we taught English to almost 90,000 Egyptians, delivered 380,000 UK qualifications, and shared UK’s best assets with over 720,000 people through our programmes, exhibitions and festivals. We believe it is vital for the private sector to work alongside civil society and government to help Egypt achieve its long-term ambitions, bringing opportunity and prosperity to communities across the country.”