Strengthening skills in South Yorkshire
We’ve recently become a ‘Skills Investor’ with Skills Street to help develop the skills needed to deliver the energy transition across South Yorkshire.
Switching on the skills supply
Skills Street is an immersive and innovative careers training experience developed to inspire and inform children, young people and adults from across the South Yorkshire region. Skills Street expects to welcome approximately 16,000 school aged students each year.
We’re proud to be working with Skills Street to develop an interactive learning zone to promote the decarbonisation of South Yorkshire and develop a host of skills and training opportunities from early years and primary stages into secondary, further and higher education. We’ll develop a bespoke ‘taste of industry’ branded space designed to showcase the breadth of opportunities across both E.ON and the energy sector.
By collaborating with Skills Street, we’ll deliver hands-on, skills focused sessions that will help learners from 5-16 years old to take learning beyond the classroom by applying education to industry activity.
James Beighton, Development Manager at Skills Street, said: “I am delighted to be working with E.ON as our latest Skills Investor partner. We operate in a region where manufacturing and industrial heritage is our identity. To have the voice of E.ON to help shape the next generation of talent, whether that’s engineering and technical talent or giving context and meaning to green careers and climate action, will bring a unique opportunity to inspire a workforce that will secure our future on so many fronts. A perfect example of immediate and localised skills needs meeting national priorities across a crucial industry for our national economy.”
Our commitment to decarbonising South Yorkshire
We’ve had a presence in Sheffield for nearly 10 years with our Blackburn Meadows renewable energy plant which currently powers our district heat network in the Lower Don Valley. The district heat network uses biomass to provide a source of low carbon heating to connected buildings in the Lower Don Valley.
Earlier this year, we announced our plans for a multi-million-pound investment that would more than double the size of our district heat network in Sheffield, connecting new businesses and homes across the Lower Don Valley and delivering more low carbon and cost-effective heating.
This planned investment will help to decarbonise the region and could also bring a host of skills and training opportunities for local people. With the potential to tap into new sources of low carbon heating, we have a huge opportunity to develop the skills needed for the new energy world.
Our Social Value and Skills Lead, Angela Beanlands, said: “Our recently announced plans to expand the route of our district heat network support Sheffield’s bold steps to become a zero-carbon city by 2030. To do that we’ll be looking to create more than 2,000 green jobs and we’re hoping our work with Skills Street helps us and helps the people of South Yorkshire to develop the skills and the training we all need to get the most out of this huge investment in the city.”
Plus, if you’ve been to the Sheffield & Tinsley Canal, near Meadowhall Shopping Centre recently, you might have spotted a new piece of artwork by artist Alex Chinneck which we co-funded with British Land, former co-owners of Meadowhall, as part of our redevelopment of our Blackburn Meadows site.
Taking the form of a full-size canal boat, whose body behaves in an extraordinary way and performs a gravity-defying loop-the-loop, the sculpture celebrates Sheffield’s historic waterways and industrial heritage.
At E.ON we’re committed to helping the UK’s cities become more sustainable and you can read more about our efforts at eonenergy.com/sustainable-cities.