SECONDARY school pupils will be given workshops about climate change as part of a community commitment by the developers behind Walney's offshore windfarm.

Ørsted has announced two groups will share £50,000 of cash from a Skills Fund that will deliver Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) related training or education courses.

The first award goes to Scientists for Global Responsibility, who will deliver workshops entitled “One Planet - One Life” across secondary schools in Cumbria and Lancashire over a two-year period.

The interactive workshops will involve over 1,000 young people and aim to give a better understanding of the human contribution to climate change, and how a combination of technological and behavioural solutions are needed to address this impact.

Dr Jan Maskell said: “It will enable us to develop our science education activities for secondary schools. With the need to keep global temperature change below 1.5 degrees C - as indicated by the scientific evidence - educating our young people about their carbon footprints and how they can reduce them is vital.”

The second award goes to 3D Web Technologies Ltd who will deliver twelve STEM skill-focused workshops for year eight pupils.

This project aims to give students an engaging, balanced and educationally valuable bigger picture insight into the complexities of offshore wind farm design. In small teams, pupils will be experiencing what it is like to work on a wind farm development for the day.

The teams will create their own ‘company’ with each member having a specific role such as Project Manager, Financial Manager, Technical Adviser or Public Relations (PR) Consultant.

They will have to plan and design a wind farm layout considering real-life constraints and obstacles.

Ørsted (formerly DONG Energy) officially opened the Walney Extension Offshore Windfarm, off the Walney Island coast, in September.

Each year, approximately £600,000 will be made available for skills and community projects for the expected 25-year lifetime of the wind farm, which is currently the world’s largest offshore wind farm.

The fund is being administered by the independent grant-making charity GrantScape.

For further information about the fund, to see details of the projects awarded grants in Round One, and to find out how to apply visit their website www.grantscape.org.uk or call 01908 247634.