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Youth Board launched by the Mayor’s Green Skills Academy for Local London
19 February 2025On Thursday 13th February, the Green Skills Youth Board was launched by the Mayor’s Green Skills Academy for Local London. A first event was held in the Green Lab at London South East Colleges’ Bromley Campus, as a pilot session.
Sonya Mallin (Project Manager), Phoebe Winter (Project Coordinator), and Hannah Phoenix (Employer Skills and T-Level Officer) spoke to current students on construction and engineering courses about the relevance of green skills to their upcoming careers. The students were engaged, with a number expressing an interest in helping environmental issues. Over 30 students handed in sign-up forms, which will lead to an invitation to the first upcoming meeting of the board.
The aim of this board is to give students a forum through which they can curate a programme of events to further their green skills knowledge. The sessions they’d like to be put on will be organised by staff, and for T-Level students, involvement can contribute towards their work taster activity hours and support their preparation and readiness for industry placement.
This group will also comprise of students from all eight colleges in the Mayor’s Green Skills Academy for Local London. Events will be largely be hosted through i-Immersive classrooms, giving these young people experience collaborating virtually, a useful skill in itself, as well as meaning no college misses out on valuable talks and opportunities. There is optimism that a site visit may form an in-person meeting for some students.
The first planned event will be a ‘Women in STEM’ talk and workshop, with all students invited to listen to a geotechnical engineer, Helayna Jenkins, speak about her incredible career and why she believes more women should get involved in the construction and engineering industries.
We are excited to see the Youth Board develop, and are delighted to have so many students showing their enthusiasm!
Author: Phoebe Winter, Mayor’s Green Skills Academy for Local London Project Coordinator
