Nine fully-funded study trips to the UK will attract Spanish-speaking students to enter the competition, making their own short films about Shakespeare. The project builds on the hugely successful English is GREAT competition run by English UK in Brazil last autumn, in which students were asked to create short videos. There were 1,900 entries of which the top hundred were viewed over 85,000 times on You Tube, and press reports reached around 18m Brazilians during the early part of the campaign.

English UK is running the new competition under the umbrella of the Shakespeare Lives campaign and in partnership with the British Council.

"We're very excited about this project, which builds on what we did in Brazil," said Jodie Gray, head of market development for English UK. "We learned that students love both making and watching the competition videos, and with the help of social media, they really got our message across about the value and experience of studying English in the UK.

"This time, they're making videos which are aimed at selling the joys of Shakespeare to other language learners, and we've tweaked the competition format so that the finalists are those which are getting the most views. That encourages the students to push their videos on social media, and means that the most effective ones are coming through.

"The winning videos last time were fantastic, and the students had great experiences studying in the UK, which became a legacy video. We can't wait to see what the students come up with this time."

The competition will be launched at student fairs in Mexico City and Bogota, Colombia in October, with further promotion via British Council offices in Latin America and a promotional website. The campaign aims to reach 11,000 students in person, and 4m online. The English UK centres offering places to winners will have spaces on the exhibition stands at the two fairs. 

Competition entries must be uploaded to You Tube, and the 30 most viewed by Monday 21 November (the closing date) will enter the final, to be judged by a panel from UK ELT. Nine winners will travel to the UK in January and February 2017, for three week courses hosted by English UK member centres in England, Scotland and Wales.

Notes to Editors

• English UK is the national association of accredited English language centres in the United Kingdom, with 450+ accredited ELT centres in membership from university and further education college language departments to international study centres and private sector colleges. English UK is a UK-registered charity with the primary aim of advancing the education of international students in the English language, in the home of the English language: englishuk.com
• Visit the campaign website (Spanish): competicion.shakespearelives.org
• For more information, contact Jodie Gray, head of market development at English UK via jodie@englishuk.com.