Investing in our communities
Each day ScottishPower engages in activities that have a positive impact on society. We create wealth and jobs, pay taxes, deliver goods and services, drive innovation, and contribute to the skills base. Over and above these activities, we regularly contribute to community based organisations and engage in activities to help address a range of wider issues in the communities where we operate.
This specific voluntary engagement with charitable organisations or activities that extends beyond companies’ core business is broadly known as Corporate Community Investment.
At ScottishPower we strongly believe that raising awareness and providing support at an early age helps young people make important and informed choices regarding their future careers. We are also committed to providing routes for people who want to return to work after a careers break.
“One of the team here asked me to be a STEM Ambassador – my path to ScottishPower hasn’t been the typical one and if someone had sat me down when I was younger and said – come on, you can be an engineer, I’d have done that. So I have been involved in quite a few STEM things to say to other young girls embrace your Math skills and don’t be scared.”
Dolores - STEM Ambassador (and CAD Designer, Renewables)
Here are some of the initiatives we have taken to help and support our communities.
Breaking Barriers Programme
The Breaking Barriers programme is run in partnership with Strathclyde University and ENABLE Scotland and includes access to mainstream university, a graduation ceremony and an eight-week work placement at ScottishPower for young people with learning disabilities.
Visit the Breaking Barriers website
Returners Programme
ScottishPower is excited to partner with Equate to deliver our Returners Programme UK wide.
Mental Health Awareness
We all have mental health, just as we all have physical health. It’s a normal part of everyday life, and we all have our ups and downs. How we feel can vary from good mental wellbeing to difficult feelings and emotions, sometimes even to severe mental health problems. ScottishPower has a positive approach to mental health and provides a range of support services available for all staff. This includes and Employee Assistance Programme and confidential helpline, plus trained Mental Health First Aiders as part of our commitment to Occupational Health Support.
MCR Pathways
MCR Pathways is a Scottish charity supported by ScottishPower whose vision that every care-experienced and disadvantaged young person in Scotland gets the same education outcomes, career opportunities and life chances as every other young person. Their school-based Mentoring and Talent Taster programme supports disadvantaged and care-experienced young people, helping them to find, grow and use their inspiring talents and then progress onto positive destinations.
Visit the MCR Pathways website
At ScottishPower we are keen to deliver the importance of STEM across the country, here are some of the key events we are involved in:
- Electric Detectives at the Glasgow Science Centre, science based workshops for primary schools
- Generation Science, workshops delivered primary schools in the Dumfries & Galloway and South Lanarkshire areas
- ALLaboutSTEM workshops delivered to primary schools in Liverpool
- Skills Scotland Staffrooms, sponsored area to meet with teachers and career influencers, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Manchester
- Young Engineers and Science Clubs, regional and national events to identify future Scientists and Engineers
Bright Sparks Programme – GSC
We are delighted to work in partnership with the Glasgow Science Centre. We have designed activities to tell the ScottishPower story and are spark curiosity and enthusiasm for STEM subjects. The UK faces massive future energy challenges, and the power industry needs the workforce and talent to meet those challenges. Partnerships like this will help us to engage with and encourage the next generation to join us.
Dumfries House
We work in partnership with Dumfries House and major employers to help schools deliver a range of stimulating STEM-based activities, as well as highlighting the exciting career prospects in these areas. Dumfries House Engineering Centre to give it its full name, provides experiential indoor and outdoor learning for primary and early secondary school students - activities are designed to challenge pupils as they imagine, design, build and test solutions to real world problems.
Information for school groups, youth organisations and forthcoming events are on the website.
Visit the Dumfries House website
Young Engineers & Science Clubs Scotland
As part of this organisation’s annual Celebration of Engineering and Science, we present a STEM challenge for up to 50 Young Engineers and Science Clubs from all over Scotland. These primary and secondary school children don’t just get the opportunity to display their projects, but compete for a range of great prizes too.
Visit the Young Engineers & Science Clubs Scotland website
All About STEM
All About STEM is about doing amazing things to inspiring young people and to promote exciting and rewarding Science, Technology Engineering and Maths opportunities. We work on lots of different projects to bring exciting events to schools, linking them with business and industry expert volunteers at ScottishPower, inspiring the next generation of STEM specialists.