We have a diverse range of educational programmes which support our climate and social commitments. These are outlined below:
The Pod – our programme for greener schools
The Pod sits at the heart of EDF Energy’s programme for greener schools. It was launched in September 2008 and was developed to help EDF Energy meet its Social Commitment of engaging with 2.5 million children by 2012.
The Pod is an online programme that helps teachers to educate children about energy, water, transport and waste. It has free teaching materials e.g. lesson plans, resource packs, information and games as well as providing a place for children to blog and to share pictures and films of the great work that they have been doing in school.
The Pod provides a learning journey ‘learn, act, and inspire’ which helps teachers prepare for and run lessons and green projects in schools. The ‘learn’ section has background information about each of the topics and explains all of the important issues. The ‘act’ section provides lesson plans, resource packs and online activities that can be used in a classroom and are suitable for a small group, a class, year group or the whole school. The ‘inspire’ section has suggestions for how to take activities further and links to other useful information and organisations. More topics will be added as the programme develops.
Each school gets its own homepage which can be customised with details about the school building and its eco-code, pictures and awards. The teaching materials on the Pod were written with the help of teachers and by our partner the Eden Project. All of our activities have been endorsed by Eco-Schools, the largest environmental schools programme in the world, completing activities on the Pod will help schools achieve eco-schools bronze, silver and green flag awards as well as earning Pod medals. Podometers record potential savings schools make as a result of their projects both at an individual school level and at a national level. The programme aims to make real and measureable difference to the energy efficiency and carbon output of schools.
The Pod is the sustainability and regeneration strand of the London 2012 education programme Get Set.
You can visit the Pod at www.jointhepod.org.
Power Academy: bridging the skills gap
To address the challenge of the “skills gap”, where fewer young people are entering careers in engineering, we are supporting university students on engineering degree courses through the Power Academy.
The Power Academy is an initiative backed by 17 UK companies and six universities; run by the Institute of Electrical Engineering and Technology to ensure a steady stream of talent for the future.
We support students by offering scholarships, help with fees, cash for living expenses, paid holiday placements and long-term career prospects.
Working in collaboration with the Engineering Development Trust
Within our existing nuclear business, we focus on encouraging young people across the country to develop skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics ('STEM') by working with schools in the communities that are local to our sites.
We work with the Engineering Development Trust on projects such as GO4SET, sending our trained STEM Ambassadors to mentor teams of Year 9 / S2 (Scotland) in exciting projects, with the aim of stimulating interest and highlighting the opportunities for young people in science, technology and engineering. To learn more visit www.go4set.org.uk.
Inspiring young people through the Industrial Trust
The Industrial Trust is the leading national provider of focused out-of-school and in-company educational experiences for young people. The aim of the Industrial Trust is to give every young person the opportunity to pursue a career that will excite and fulfil them and which will contribute to the UK economy.
We have been working with the Trust since 2004. The main focus of the partnership is to create interest among young people in the energy and utility industry sectors.