Our new Partnership with the King’s Trust!
What an amazing 2-week journey that left indelible memories on the Energy Garden Team and trainees alike! In September we opened our doors to 15 young trainees who made palpable efforts to experience as much as they could during the ‘Get Ready for Careers in Sustainability’ Energy Garden Youth Training Programme with the King’s Trust. A pilot that brought together core aims of both Energy Garden and the King’s Trust to support young people not in education, employment or training into the first steps of understanding the sustainability industry, through a combination of experiential and theoretical learning.
These young people from Greater London aged 18-30, received education in many areas, including theoretical lessons on biodiversity, air quality, energy efficiency and renewable technology, as well as insights into community energy and energy markets. They also learned and applied practical skills by participating in gardening sessions, workshops on solar panel making, back up battery storage and off grid solar installations. In addition, trainees were provided with employment skills training, including CV and interview good practices, hiring insights, professionalism, EDI and employment rights and responsibilities.
It was gratifying to see them so engaged and enthusiastic about the programme, especially when it came to practical workshop days that included gardening, biodiversity surveying, solar panel making and solar installation. The programme supported these young people in their development of soft skills for the workplace, enhancing their cultural capital and exposure to networking opportunities. Being immersed at Energy Garden HQ gave the cohort a unique insight into the day-to-day practices of a not-for-profit organisation in the sustainability industry, with opportunities to speak in depth with our staff regarding their roles and topics learned, which helped to deepen their understanding of concepts within the programme. Young People also had the opportunity to link everything they had learned to the policy and politics unit which included a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament and in-depth explanations of the processes of government, their rights as citizens and the impact of government policies on themes such as the climate crisis, societal inequality and air quality.
Each day at the office provided a new opportunity to deepen friendships withing the cohort, recap and build on what they had learned, ask questions and engage in additional tasks outside of office hours, that added to their skills and understanding of how Energy Garden worked as an organisation. This desire to achieve and genuine interest was reflected in the quality of work produced by the trainees which will enable them to achieve AQA unit award certificates in Introduction to Energy; Social Media and Comms; Understanding Equity, Diversity & Inclusion; Biodiversity, Air quality and Horticulture; and Energy efficiency in the home.
Trainees were aided in their next steps through a careers afternoon with industry experts that included 3 of Energy Garden’s Directors; Managing Director at Triple Point, Claire Ainsworth; Senior Teaching Fellow at Imperial College, Dr Tillie Collins and Co-Founder of PeerCo, Elaine Trimble. In addition, young people also had the opportunity to speak directly with Jo Tasker the Co-Founder of Community Coworking, her Operations Manager Joe Wilson and our very own Comms and Events office, Selvia Diwanty and Community Engagement Officer, Brandon Lynch. These one to one discussions and Q & As were invaluable in supporting their goals regarding their future employment and possible next steps into the sustainability world. We hope to making this careers event a permanent addition to future Energy Garden Youth Training Programmes.
It was an absolute pleasure to have the opportunity to work with such insightful individuals with the ability to engage in reflection and critical thinking about themselves, their own career aspirations and next steps, as well as wider themes such as how to implement United Nations Development Goals in their local communities.
We look forward to continuing our partnership with the King’s Trust and delivering future 2 week Youth Training Programmes, that will be as impactful as this one was.
– Leila