We’re delighted to share Ørsted has granted a multi-year grant to help young people in Cumbria develop skills needed to follow a career in STEM.
Field Studies Council was awarded £34,380 to provide sixty free places on its Science Lab Camp course for young people in the South Lakes area. Between June 2026 and July 2027, five groups from selected schools and colleges take part in a unique residential course which combines practical lab work with outdoor learning and adventure activities. The courses take place at our Castle Head field centre near Grange-over-Sands.
This generous funding comes from Ørsted via its Walney Extension Skills Fund. The fund aims to address the shortage of technical and engineering skills needed to meet the UK’s future employment needs by providing £100,000 annually to projects across the UK. Areas that benefit are those close to Ørsted’s Walney wind farms, covering designated parts of Barrow, Copeland, Lancaster, South Lakes and Wyre.
We were very excited to get started and we’ll share updates throughout the project. Due to geographical restrictions, we are working directly with eligible schools and colleges, and we are unable to accept applications for funded places. However, if your school or group is interested in exploring a similar project and you’re looking for funding, we’d love to hear from you and see if we can work with you. Please contact us to arrange a call.
Walney Extension is one of Ørsted UK’s 12 operational wind farms. It was inaugurated 8 years ago and, at the time, became the world’s largest offshore wind farm, generating renewable electricity for nearly 600,000 UK homes. Today, over 400 people work across Ørsted’s west coast operations. With over 85% of the team living within an hour of their base, it shows just how deeply the industry is rooted in the local community.
The funding is managed by GrantScape, a grant-making charity committed to enhancing the environment and strengthening local communities through its grant programmes. GrantScape’s experience stretches back to 1997 and it has awarded grants totalling over £90 million to deserving projects over this time.
GrantScape manages a range of community and environmental grant programmes on behalf of corporate and local authority clients. These are tailored to their individual requirements, which is the charity’s speciality. In addition, GrantScape offers a professional project management and grant process review service to groups requiring support with these activities.
For further information, please see the GrantScape website or follow @GrantScape1 on X.
Our regular Science Lab Camp course is open for individual bookings, along with a wide range of residential learning courses. View all of our Experiences for Young People.