Dudgeon Windfarm to invest £2.5 million into local education fund
Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm is launching an exciting new education initiative for secondary school pupils across Great Yarmouth, North Norfolk and Breckland. Targeted at inspiring pupils to get actively involved with the subjects of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), the program will inject an extra £2.5million additional educational funding for the next 25 years.
Today marks a significant milestone for the Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm with the launch of its community education initiative - the Dudgeon STEM Programme.
This programme is targeted at encouraging pupils to go on and study STEM subjects in either Sixth Form or Technical College. The ambition is that this will provide a pathway into further education or employment areas which have STEM subjects as a core area.
Emil Orderud, the Dudgeon Operations Manager, based in Great Yarmouth had the following comments:
“At Dudgeon we are passionate about inspiring the next generation of scientists, innovators and inventors. We understand that curiosity for science and technology develops at an early age and we want to harness that spark by investing in education within our local communities in Norfolk”.
“By committing to a yearly investment of £100,000 for the lifetime of the windfarm, we believe that the Dudgeon STEM Programme has the potential to make a real impact on science motivation and competence across the three districts of Great Yarmouth, North Norfolk and Breckland”.
Non-fee paying schools and other organisations delivering government funded national curriculum education are encouraged to make application for funding, as are not for profit companies, voluntary groups and charities accustomed to working with this age group. The fund is also available for programmes dedicated to training those who will go on and teach pupils within the STEM subjects.
Emil Orderud concluded with strong hopes for the programme: “The Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm is delighted to launch the new STEM programme and we are confident that there will be strong interest and competition for the initial round of funding awards in 2018.”
For more details of the Dudgeon STEM Programme and application process visit:
www.norfolkfoundation.com/funds/dudgeon-community-fund.
The Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm is situated 40 kilometres off the coast of Cromer, North Norfolk.
Operated by Statoil from its Operations and Maintenance base in Great Yarmouth, Dudgeon consists of 67 6MW wind turbine generators, and now it is fully commissioned, it will power 410,000 UK homes.
Historically, as part of the construction of the wind farm, the Dudgeon Community Fund has made grants of over £230,000 to support projects in the rural communities affected by onshore construction activities.
For further information please contact:
Emil Orderud
Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm
T: 07766508368
E: eord@statoil.com
or
Hannah Mary Goodlad
Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm
T: 07557104163
E: hgood@statoil.com
Issue date: 09-10-17