Community and Education

As one of the UK’s leading energy companies, we believe it’s important to raise awareness of climate change and help educate young people about energy efficiency. Our programmes enable us to build closer relationships with local communities, demonstrating our commitment to the environment and education. They also enable us to involve our employees, so they can develop and share their skills with children across the country.

We aim to inspire young people from their first day at school to their first day at work by:

• helping young people develop their skills and knowledge;
• empowering young people to achieve their vision for themselves and for the environment.

Environmental education

The npower Climate Cops programme helps schools across the UK become greener and more sustainable and shows young people how they can take a lead in being greener both at home and at school. In 2011, over 9,000 young people participated in the programme across the UK and 21 schools in our four partner cities of Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham and Sunderland benefited from a free energy audit, collectively identifying potential CO₂ savings of over 900 tonnes each year, the equivalent of planting 264 acres of new trees annually. We also delivered No Power Hour road shows in our four partner cities during the summer, supported by former England football manager Kevin Keegan, showing children how easy it is to save energy and spend an hour without power by doing fun activities like playing football.

Supporting Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths

As the UK moves to a low carbon economy, the UK energy industry faces a recruitment challenge. The pool from which we can draw Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) talent remains low, but demand from businesses for STEM professionals increases. To make sure we have the calibre of engineers and scientists we need in the future, we need to continue to inspire more young people to study STEM subjects.

Our employees are involved in a range of initiatives which get young people interested in STEM subjects – including our enthuse programme and power station visits. Through these, we show young people our ‘world of work’. In 2011, over 11,000 students participated in our enthuse events and our power station visits.

Engaging the community through our npower Football League sponsorship

In 2011, we developed our partnership with The Football League Trust as part of our three-year sponsorship of the Football League. We delivered programmes that aim to use young people’s love of football to help them develop their skills and confidence in exciting ways.

Our Home Team Heroes programme gave over 33,000 young people in communities surrounding the 72 Football League clubs the chance to develop their sports and life skills. Our What’s Your Goal? competition used football to inspire school age children to start thinking about careers and work experience. Over 700 students applied for one of eleven job roles within the football industry – none of which involved playing the game. The eleven winning students spent a day shadowing and being mentored by a high profile mentor from the football world. We also launched our npower Kids Cup and Girls' Cup competitions, giving over 19,000 under-eleven schoolchildren and under-thirteen girls first-hand experience of the importance of teamwork, the fun of playing football and the rewards of achievement.