Yorkshire Energy Park employees have joined forces with UKSTEM to roll out an education programme across the region to inspire students about the next generation of green skills coming to the Humber.
The team visited schools in Hull and the East Riding to tell them about the £200m Yorkshire Energy Park development and jobs that will be created in the years to come.
UKSTEM, a national organisation that aims to engage students in science, technology, engineering and maths by running workshops alongside industry, joined the team to talk about the onset of hydrogen as a renewable energy source and ran a session with students to build a hydrogen fuelled car.
Cameron Wood, Junior Consultant at Shared Agenda, who is working on the Yorkshire Energy Park project said: “This is an incredibly exciting time for the Humber, with more jobs being created in renewable industries and we wanted to take the opportunity to work with local schools to inspire the next generation about careers they could consider.
“As the team behind the Yorkshire Energy Park project and a local business ourselves, it’s incredibly important for us to bring local people and students on this journey with us. Work is due to start on site later this year and we want to help people understand what’s coming and what fantastic news this is for the region.”
Julia Lovel, Lead Practitioner from Holderness Academy & Sixth Form College, said: “The team gave our students a fantastic learning experience. It was a privilege to see them having the opportunity to build a hydrogen fuelled car and rising to the metacognitive challenges of the task with, in some cases, such fierce competitive drive! They enjoyed a remarkable experience that they will go home and talk about and recall in the future.”
Mike Cargill, MD of UKSTEM, added:“It was great to see the students engage with the workshop so much. Not only did they enjoy creating the cars and racing them, but it gave us the opportunity to speak to them about the wider hydrogen economy and how sustainable energy is going to be such a huge part of their future and how they can be a part of that, particularly with being located in the proposed Humber Freeport.”
Once completed, Yorkshire Energy Park has the potential to create around 4,480 jobs, upskill local workers, create state-of-the-art community sports facilities and an educational campus in conjunction with the University of Lincoln. The project will attract investment in the energy, data, technology and manufacturing sectors to an area that has an abundance of skills and experience in these industries already. Combine all of this with YEP’s location within the East Coast Carbon Capture and Storage Cluster and the proximity to the UK’s “Energy Estuary”, and it is clear that YEP will play an important role in boosting jobs and investments in the region.
