Academia and industry working together to transform the prospects of our people, communities and economy

By Alison Wilson, Director of Economic Development and Advancement at the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI)

The Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport (ICFGF) initiative represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to significantly impact our economy by driving demand for education, training, research, and innovation.

As a key partner, the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) is committed to supporting the Green Freeport by training the future workforce, advancing research and innovation in the renewable energy sector, and collaborating with both public and private sector partners.

Together, we aim to transform the prospects of our region, fostering a vibrant and sustainable economic future.

Alison Wilson, UHI Director of Development and Alumni Engagement.

UHI exists to have a transformational impact on the people, communities and economy of our regions. To achieve that, it is vital that we partner with and understand the needs of industry. We’re delighted with how the renewable energy sector, including offshore wind developers, new inward investors to the region, and the Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport, are engaging with UHI to develop the economy of our region.

We’re at the start of a new academic year, and across UHI we have around 36,000 student enrolments. Our alumni community now stands at more than 40,000 graduates, with 3,000 students graduating this year alone. With around two-thirds of our students coming from within our regions, that represents a significant potential labour pool in the north of Scotland.

When I left school in the Highlands 36 years ago, there was no UHI. There was no option for us to stay to study at university level. My generation was often told that to be successful, you had to leave.

That’s no longer true. We now have a university of our own, creating choice and opportunity for young people to stay and contribute to the huge growth that the Green Freeport initiative, and other infrastructure investments across our region, will bring.

Supporting more young people to choose to study, live and work in the Highlands and Islands is vital to the future sustainability of our region. Quite simply, we still cannot afford to lose large numbers of our talented young people from the area.

In rural, dispersed regions, population matters. It matters for ensuring our communities flourish. It matters for our businesses. It matters for our confidence and self-belief.

And it matters for new sectors like offshore wind, where the success of projects depends not only on access to natural resources around our coastline but also on access to skills, directly and through the supply chain. This is why there was a natural fit for ScotWind developers and UHI to identify our common ground and work together.

UHI’s STEM Outreach Programme has been funded by around £1 million of investment from offshore wind developers led by West of Orkney Windfarm, Ossian, Buchan Offshore Wind, Thistle Wind Partners and Northland Power.

Our shared ambition to inspire young people at the earliest stage, in our primary schools, is building the foundations needed for the long-term labour supply that industry needs. West of Orkney Windfarm was instrumental in bringing industry partners together collaboratively, creating resources for our UHI academic partners to deploy locally to benefit as many young people as possible.

With industry support we now have an outreach team of 15, extending the scale and reach of our UHI STEM Outreach Programme from Shetland and Orkney in the north, to Argyll in the south, already engaging with 6,000 pupils this year. This year, with additional support from Buchan Offshore Wind and in partnership with the North East Scotland College, we are extending our proven delivery model for science and engineering-related learning and activities to a further 31 primary schools in north Aberdeenshire.

Ultimately, our success will be measured by how we work together to shift the dial on the number of young people who see a bright future in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers in our region, and who stay for both education and employment. Let’s face it, they are our region’s future. And that future is full of opportunities for them, not least with exciting developments like the Inverness & Cromarty Firth Green Freeport set to create thousands of new jobs here in the north of Scotland.

More young people proudly choosing to live, study and work in our region shouldn’t just be a strapline, and I, for one, am keen to actively encourage and support a growing number of this next generation studying, training and developing their careers here.

The renewables sector is also working with UHI’s engineering, environmental and marine science researchers on a range of innovative research projects, as well as supporting our students with an emerging suite of entrance scholarships and bursaries which are game-changers. They differentiate UHI in a competitive marketplace and they enable more students to choose to study close to the significant employment opportunities ahead, supported by business, on courses that are developed to suit industry needs.

The impact we can make together is perhaps best illustrated by the story of one of UHI’s recent graduates.

Charlotte from Skye completed an Honours Degree in Energy Engineering. She was the first winner of the Calum Davidson Marine Energy Prize and also received the Sidney Black Award for best female engineering student.

Charlotte began studying at UHI in 2018 after working in hospitality. She attended UHI Inverness initially, then studied remotely, making use of her local UHI centre in Portree, while continuing to help run her family croft. During her studies she undertook an internship that led to a graduate position with SSE, enabling her to remain in the Highlands and Islands to begin her career. Not only that, but she recently got married with her husband relocating to Scotland to join her.

Charlotte and her family are an excellent example of why UHI was created, the invaluable support our students receive from our industry partners and the difference that UHI makes to individuals’ lives.

To fully grasp the exciting opportunities to come, it’s vital that we continue to work together to increase STEM interest in all our school-age people, and also to directly increase the number who, like Charlotte, proudly choose to study and work within our region so that we fully realise the potential of the exciting offshore wind, Green Freeport, and wider employment opportunities ahead.