A partnership is preparing pupils to seize the opportunities provided by the North East’s green industrial revolution.
The Cummins Darlington Enthuse Partnership is enabling STEM Learning to deliver intensive support around science and technology to ten secondary and primary schools in the Darlington area.
Teachers involved in the two-year partnership, which will be led from the Cummins Darlington Campus, will receive advanced continuing professional development training in delivering STEM subjects through STEM Learning’s specialists, both at its locally based Science Learning Partnership and at the National STEM Learning Centre in York.
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This will be directly linked to pupil engagement activity through the organisation’s STEM Ambassador programme, which is currently celebrating its 20th anniversary and enables industry experts to conduct exciting and engaging STEM-related projects with young people.
Cummins - one of the key partners in The Northern Echo's Level Up campaign - designs, manufactures, distributes and services a broad portfolio of power solutions and is currently developing engines to operate on hydrogen at its Darlington campus.
The company is providing employee volunteers and grant funding to support a two-year programme with STEM Learning that aims to increase young people’s overall aspirations and their engagement with STEM subjects.
The STEM sector currently has significant skills gaps, which could be a barrier to growth, with the Tees Valley seeing fewer pupils enter the broad range of STEM based GCSE subjects than the national average. Enthuse Partnerships help to close this gap by equipping young people with the skills and desire to pursue a STEM career.
“It is vitally important that we inspire a next generation of engineers, and that we ensure a pipeline of people with the right skills to design and build the clean technologies of the future. We want to highlight to young people how rewarding a career in STEM can be. We are excited about the Enthuse Partnership and working with STEM Learning to make this a reality,” commented Craig Thomas, Cummins Darlington Engine Plant Manager.”
Owen McAteer, Regional Network Lead for STEM Learning in the North East, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Cummins on this Enthuse Partnership.
"The partnership will enable us to carry out intensive work with the pupils and teachers at Darlington schools to drive our young people’s engagement with STEM subjects and challenge perceptions some of them may have of STEM careers."
Read next:
Antonio Leitao, VP of Cummins Europe, on the bright future of the Darlington site
CEO flies in to meet Darlington engine plant staff after £14m investment plan
Echo's Level Up campaign puts people at centre of region's growth
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