English lessons. How do you best fill a room with enthusiastic participants? Several times in the past two weeks I've found it's by talking about learning English.  The embassy is always keen to promote British goods and services. And promoting English can help achieve our objectives in several ways.  Top-quality language skills can help equip Ukraine for closer links with the rest of the world, including integration with the European Union.  English is often used as a language of business communication, including within many large European businesses based outside the UK.  It's also a common language in many peace-keeping operations.  So a good knowledge of English can offer a competitive advantage to anyone's qualifications or CV.

Then there's the fact that a host of businesses in the UK, from boarding schools and language schools to business training institutes and universities, offer top class educational opportunities to customers from around the world.  The education and skills export sector earns the UK around £28 billion a year - quite a bit compared eg to the automotive sector on around £20 billion or financial services on £19 billion.  In fact the UK is a world leader in the manufacture and supply of learning resources and English language training. So it's great if the embassy can help them find new customers. Plus, there's a special bonus when people decide to study in the UK itself.  That's the chance to spend some time in one of the most beautiful and fascinating countries in the world - the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

This October, I've spoken at several events promoting Ukraine-based organisations which offer to help Ukrainians find English language training opportunities in the UK.  For a fee, such organisations can help individuals and companies with everything from finding a suitable boarding school for their child to organising large-scale English language training for a workforce or sales team.  When I addressed a group of CEOs and training experts at the Residence on the benefits of high quality English language teaching, the interest was palpable.  I've also spoken this month at a conference organised by the British Councilto celebrate success in helping raise the quality of English language teaching in Ukraine and to explore how that success can be carried forward.  The conference took place at the National State Tax Service University of Ukraineabout 25 km outside Kyiv.  Before the launch of the conference I met the Rector and several Vice-Rectors and they showed me round the university, a beautiful campus set in autumnal woodlands.  We then opened the conference itself, with a large audience of enthusiastic teachers and teaching experts, many of whom I met and who included representatives from several places I'd been to recently such as the National Mining University of Dnipropetrovsk.  It always strikes me that the fact most Ukrainians start off bilingual (speaking Ukrainian and Russian) should give them a huge advantage in communicating widely as well as in learning additional languages.  Based on the audience at the National State Tax Service University and at the educational event at the Residence, the level of expertise in English  across Ukraine looks set to improve still further.