Forewind’s flagship schools education programme Champions for Wind has now drawn to a close with more than 3000 students and 41 teachers having taken part over the past four years.
Launched in 2011 with the Humberside Engineering Training Association (HETA), the programme aimed to raise awareness amongst primary and secondary pupils of the potential career opportunities in offshore wind energy and to give them an understanding of the types of qualifications and experience required to gain employment in the industry.
A total of 24 secondary, primary and special educational schools in Teesside, Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire were involved in the project, chosen due to their proximity to the proposed onshore infrastructure of the Dogger Bank wind projects.
A final project evaluation completed by Dr Myfanwy Bugler, University of Hull was based on questionnaires and focus groups from 464 pupils aged 9 to 15 and questionnaires and interviews with 41 teachers.
Pupils and teachers actually completed two questionnaires one pre-programme and one post-programme to assess the extent of their knowledge and interest in the offshore wind industry.
The results show that pupils’ knowledge of the offshore wind industry, Dogger Bank and related careers significantly increased after the programme had been delivered in their schools.
In addition, pupils’ desire to work in the offshore wind industry also increased and pupils’ interest to learn more about the offshore wind industry, Dogger Bank and related careers also statistically significantly increased.
A typical comment from a student: “It had a good impact on me because it opened my eyes to the massive opportunities there are involved with the offshore wind industry and how lucky we were to know that there will be jobs available for us when we have finished our education.”
Teachers also showed a measurable increase in confidence in their ability to create and deliver new teaching resources, promoting both career and personal development.
One of the teacher champions said: “This project gave me confidence to deliver training, share good practice and think about how I deliver aspects of the IT curriculum. I attribute my promotion to Assistant Headteacher to the key principles of this project.”
Dr Bulger’s final evaluation report, including the questionnaires and reflections from both teachers and pupils, is now available online along with the resources produced by teachers for the programme.
Image: Forewind