Helping people start a career in the Green Economy
Background
Stay Warm, Stay Well is a three-year programme that aims to help those living in fuel poverty by offering tailored energy advice, carried out by Groundwork’s Green Doctors. Funded by the Cadent Foundation and led in partnership by Groundwork, the programme will invest £6m and support 14,500 households in communities across England.
In addition to the Green Doctor support, the programme is also funding an initiative to support the creation of the next generation of energy advisors via a 12-month traineeship opportunity through the Green Doctor Academy, to create more accessible pathways into work.
The trainees will attend classroom, online and in-person training sessions to progress towards their Level 3 Energy Awareness qualification. After they have passed their exams, they will spend the next 16 weeks working on-site as a Green Doctor, providing support and energy saving measures to vulnerable people across the UK.
Read below to find out about Rob’s journey to becoming a Green Doctor
Week 1
The programme started off with an induction where I got to meet everyone else on the course, do some team building activities and find out more about the Green Doctor role.
I signed up for the course because I have an interest in active travel and environmental issues, having worked as a bike mechanic in my previous role. I also try to prioritise helping people as much as I can, so the Green Doctor role seemed like a good opportunity to do this, whilst learning about a new and interesting industry.
Week 2 – 6
There was a good mix of classroom and on-site training. The classroom based learning covered a broad section of the energy industry, providing a good base of knowledge to start from. I’m a bit of a geek so the more technical areas were probably my favourite!
The on-site training mainly involved shadowing the Green Doctors on their home visits and other parts of their role, along with some useful, specific training. I think it would be difficult to do the role without this kind of insight. The team is great and getting to borrow some of their experience really helps you get started on the right foot.
Week 7 – 8
We had 2 weeks of revision time ahead of our Level 3 Energy Awareness exam. Personally I felt fine going into the exam. I think my previous experience, what we had covered on the course, and the help available left me without too many worries. I don’t think everyone felt this way, but help was always there for them.
It can be difficult to tailor something to people with different levels of experience, but it was handled well and everyone seemed happy.
The Future
Now that I’ve passed my exam, I’m going to be venturing out on my own visits to peoples homes. I’m still just getting started but can see the shape of my work week coming together, and I’m mostly looking forward to getting out there and helping people.
I hoped to learn more about energy in the home and the ways in which I could help people in fuel poverty. The courses have done that and I feel more confident in doing my job.
This project has been made possible through the Stay Warm, Stay Well programme, thanks to funding from Cadent Foundation
