New education programme launched in North East Lincolnshire

Champions for Wind officially launches in North East Lincolnshire

A new education programme delivered by RWE’s Sofia Offshore Wind Farm, Champions for Wind, officially launched in North East Lincolnshire this month.

Sofia’s education programmes are designed to encourage and support students into careers in offshore wind. The launch event was held at Healing Manor in Grimsby on Thursday 19 September, where local teachers, North East Lincolnshire Council members, RWE representatives and CATCH UK employees attended. The event provided an overview of the programme and how the project can be delivered within various settings.  

The careers initiative developed by Sofia Offshore Wind Farm works with teachers across the region to highlight associated employment opportunities within the offshore wind industry. 

Over the course of the programme, teachers will be supported in developing tailored curriculum materials in their specialist subject, with a focus on offshore wind and its careers. 

Following on from its success in Redcar and Cleveland, the careers programme recently concluded its three-year Teesside initiative and welcomed 11,000 pupils across the region.  

Discussing the success of Champions for Wind previous cohort in Redcar, Mike Cargill, managing director of UK STEM, who delivers the programme on behalf of RWE, said: “Champions for Wind has been the backbone of our education programme. The success is that we are supporting teachers in developing their own curriculum resources. This means that the message becomes embedded in the classroom and is sustainable because they continue to deliver it. In Redcar and Cleveland, we’ve had around 15 teachers on-board across 13 institutions, this means that we’ve accessed hundreds of children through their own work back at schools. Now we are sharing those resources online across other schools as well.” 

Zoë Keeton OBE, head of stakeholders and local markets UK and Ireland at RWE Renewables commented: “Champions for Wind is one of our flagship programmes. It’s part of the way we engage with young people and really illustrates the opportunities that exist within our industry. It has enabled us to work with our teacher champions to design activities that really work with the curriculum while showing the great opportunities available in the offshore wind industry. 

Discussing the new cohort in Grimsby, Mike said: “We’re working with the new cohort because the O&M base is located there, and we’ve got a lot of our activity in Grimsby. We’ve advertised the programme to teachers, and we’ve got around 10  teachers on board from 8 schools in the area so far, which is a fantastic start.” 

To celebrate the launch, Sofia has released a short film showcasing the success of Redcar and Cleveland’s Champions for Wind three-year programme, which can be viewed here.

The RWE Sofia Offshore Wind Farm is set to become one of the largest single offshore wind farms in the world and is a flagship development in RWE’s global and UK offshore portfolio.  

RWE currently directly employs over 3,000 people in the UK and its planned investments continue to create green jobs, developing a skilled workforce up and down the country.