Scholarship Fund

The scholarship fund supports individuals to retrain with skills to enable them to enter the field of alternative energy. £100,000 will be made available through this fund. 

The scholarship fund has now closed.

The growing importance of sustainable development and the shift to a low-carbon economy requires structural changes across sectors and occupations. This shift leads to new ‘green’ jobs and ‘greening’ of existing ones that translate to new skill sets, update of curricula or even new qualifications; for example, the adoption and dissemination of clean technologies require skills in technology application, adaptation and maintenance.

The Scholarship grants will allow individuals to study around their existing responsibilities. It will enable them to obtain the skills and qualifications they need to change their career or progress in employment. The study can take place either online or face-to-face or a combination of both.

There is a wide range of skills and training that individuals could undertake that would contribute to a net-zero economy and support the development of Low Carbon Environmental, Goods and Services (LCEGS). The scheme is looking to support skills development under the following categories:

• Environmental
• Renewable energy
• Low carbon
• Sustainable food, drink and farming
• Clean growth

Desirable Skills 

We have outlined some of the skills considered eligible for the scholarship fund, but the list is not exhaustive. Applicants are encouraged to demonstrate within their application how the skills they will be developing will contribute to a “net zero carbon” economy within the categories previously mentioned.

• Skills to design and adopt technologies, products and processes increasing resource efficiency, including low carbon energy generation
• Individuals with transferable knowledge for nuclear and renewable energy (including wind and marine)
• Individuals with transferable knowledge to install energy efficiency measures and retrofit at a household and business premises level
• Actions to improve climate resilience (retrofitting water-efficient technologies in households and business premises)
• Skills to support Community Energy Generation

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply for a grant under the Scholarships fund applicants must:

• Be an individual
• Live in Derbyshire (outside of Derby City boundaries)
• Study and gain skills/qualifications in Low Carbon technologies that contribute to a net-zero carbon economy
• Be 19 years old or over
• Be undertaking a course that will be completed within 12 months of applying to the fund.

The grant will pay for training where there is no other support available to fund that learning. 

Applicants will be ineligible if when they apply, they are:

• Attending further or higher education on a full-time basis or
• In any Government funded Learning, where 100% of the cost is already paid
• An ineligible overseas national

By contacting the National Careers Service, applicants will be given quality career advice and guidance and an independent assessment to ensure the right learning is selected.

How to apply

The scholarship fund has now closed.