Ten teachers from Hull and East Riding secondary schools are set to become offshore wind“champions” having been selected to take part in a careers education programme launched by Forewind working together with the Humberside Engineering Training Association(HETA).
Secondary school teachers from as far as Scarborough in the north to Withernsea in the south have been accepted for the ‘Champions for Wind’ programme, which will facilitate the development of tailored curriculum materials aimed at raising awareness amongst students of the full range of potential career opportunities in offshore wind energy.
Together the 10 teachers form a network of secondary school ‘champions’ from a variety of subject areas including humanities, geography, business, science and design and technology. They now have six months to design a programme specific to their students before it is delivered in the classroom, then rolled out to other schools in the Yorkshire catchment area.
Forewind General Manager, Lee Clarke said the teachers were all chosen from schools near to where the consortium’s first proposed offshore wind farms are planned to connect into the nationalgrid at an existing substation at Creyke Beck, near Cottingham.
” It made sense for us to focus on the area around the onshore infrastructure for our first development – Dogger Bank Creyke Beck – to ensure the nearby community is aware of the potential opportunities offshore wind may bring,” Dr Clarke said. “We hope it will boost the numbers of local young people interested in a career in the industry.”
The teachers have just taken part in a kick-off conference in Hull with speakers from Forewind, The Crown Estate and Renewable UK giving an introduction to the UK offshore wind industry while the HETA team outlined the process involved.
Director of Educational Programmes at HETA, Mike Cargill, said that the teachers would draw on their experience and expertise to develop engaging and innovative curriculum resources that will be disseminated within their own school and neighbouring cluster schools.
“The network approach isintended to provide a framework to support innovation and cross region school clusters,” he said. “Throughout the whole process a series of evaluation tasks will be carried out tomeasure the impact on teaching and learning.”
Teachers from schools throughout the region have been chosen including: Hessle Federation, Kelvin Hall School, Withersea High School, Scalby School, Graham School, Sir Henry Cooper, Malet Lambert, Cottingham High School, Driffield School and Ashwell.
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Offshore WIND staff, February 07, 2012; Image: forewind