Associate feature: Importance of wind developers leaving a lasting STEM legacy and how the community and industry can benefit from STEM investment

Thistle Wind Partners (TWP) is an Edinburgh-based business, founded with a focus on Scottish offshore wind development. We are currently developing 2GW of floating and fixed-foundation offshore wind capacity at our ScotWind leasing sites: the Ayre Offshore Wind Farm (Orkney) and the Bowdun Offshore Wind Farm (Aberdeenshire).

The offshore wind industry is growing at an unprecedented pace and scale, and it's widely acknowledged that there must be a dramatic rise in workers to support the sector’s rapid expansion. 

A recent report from the Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC) found that nearly 70,000 additional jobs will be required for the UK offshore wind industry in the years leading up to 2030. Workforce development is now at the top of the agenda for policymakers, industry associations and employers. 

The wind industry has a strong track record of creating high-quality and long-term jobs. At Thistle Wind Partners, we understand that our wind farm projects have the power to realise a range of wider benefits for Scotland – one of the most important of these is helping the next generation of our energy workforce to develop the skills they need in order to drive the county’s net-zero ambition. 

It is essential that we invest in the next generation and explore ways to encourage young minds to consider an extremely rewarding career in offshore wind energy. Only by opening up and demonstrating the wide variety of employment opportunities available in the offshore wind industry, will we be able to engage and enthuse the young people living within the communities in which we are operating. 

From project engineers and technology innovators, to grid managers and consents experts, to policy advisors and more, the variety of roles required is vast, and we want young people to understand that when they join the offshore wind workforce, they are helping build the country’s energy systems of the future. 

As an industry we appreciate the challenges involved. Not least of these are the misconceptions that STEM subjects are too challenging or dull or are only suitable for pupils from certain backgrounds. 

The Scottish Parliament’s Education and Skills Committee found that, pre-covid, children “who do not express STEM related aspirations by age 10 are unlikely to develop such aspirations as they get older.” The report also acknowledged that there is a “need for early and sustained interventions to build STEM capital among learners and their families.” 
At TWP, it is this type of intervention that we are working to achieve. 
Last year, it was announced that TWP and a consortium of ScotWind developers were supporting a new initiative from the University of Highlands and Islands (UHI) that provides primary school children and those in early year settings with enhanced education in STEM subjects.

With our two projects Ayre and Bowdun, TWP is also partnering with other organisations across the country to encourage primary-age children to develop an interest in STEM subjects. Our two ScotWind projects are not expected to reach construction phase until the early 2030s, which means that the primary school children we meet today will be choosing their subjects, or applying for apprenticeships, at around at that time. 

Last year, the Offshore Wind Industry Council’s most recent Offshore Wind Skills Intelligence Report set out, for the first time, several recommendations on how to encourage young people into the industry - and retain them. They noted that three in five roles in offshore wind require a STEM skillset. The report noted that figure did not include management and leadership roles, many of which would also require a STEM background. 

So, what can an offshore wind developer like Thistle Wind Partners do to help open doors for future innovators and get children more involved in STEM disciplines?

We have sent company representatives from all disciplines to science festivals throughout our project regions, which has increased children’s exposure to local projects. Earlier this year, the Caithness Science Festival, one of the largest events in the north of Scotland, welcomed more than 2,000 attendees who were all keen to explore the diverse range of STEM activities and hear about the future career pathways supported by offshore wind projects in their region. 
TechFest’s Family Day, hosted at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen experienced similar attendance with 1,500 young people, and the Orkney International Science Festival is expected to welcome a staggering 16,000 visitors. 

A TWP workshop for children has been created with the help of our engineers. The experiment consists of a small wind turbine that is connected to a device which shows how many volts of electricity the turbine produces when it turns. The participant can choose how many blades the turbine can have, and what angle they are at. The turbine can be placed as far or close to the wind source as they would like and can be angled towards the wind as they so choose. With the numerous variables at play, the participants have many factors they can work with. Being able to watch young minds realise that they have the capability to create energy by changing just one aspect of their design has been inspiring to watch. Their creativity and not being fearful of challenging the norm was evident. In some cases, the school pupils achieved better results than our wind turbine engineers!

We delivered this workshop to the participants of the Young Engineers and Science Club (YESC), now Stemovators, where we had the opportunity to discuss the importance of early intervention of STEM subjects and local offshore wind projects with the Minister for Higher and Further Education, Graeme Dey MSP. We also have partnered with the University of Highlands and Islands Outreach Programme to deliver our workshop to schools in their communities. 

Furthermore, the Aberdeen Science Centre has developed a workshop, with our support, which we will roll out to the local community in Aberdeenshire, allowing 300 children from our project region to attend the science centre to learn about offshore wind. They will invite entire primary school classes to take part, as well as head out to the community and speak to those who might not otherwise be exposed to workshops like this. 

Many of the TWP team, from all disciplines, have begun their journeys to becoming STEM Ambassadors. Meanwhile, TWP has partnered with Developing the Young Workforce, and will soon widen its ability to support young people from every stage of education through further collaboration with TechFest and local youth clubs. 

A strong workforce and supply chain will be crucial to the huge growth of wind capacity this decade. With ScotWind projects now fully underway across the country, Thistle Wind Partners is striving to be at the forefront of early years STEM work. Collaboration and creativity are key when it comes to encouraging the next generation.

The community benefit we are leaving behind will encapsulate what we think the next generation should have access to. Jobs, education, and opportunities. A bold commitment, but one which we are challenging ourselves to achieve.

This article is sponsored by Thistle Wind Partners

www.thistlewindpartners.scot