Low Carbon North: Sustainable Futures is a funded partnership between Durham University and Newcastle University, in collaboration with ORE-Catapult, aimed at supporting regional employers who contribute to the offshore wind, low carbon energy, and wider supply chain to connect with students and graduates.
Building on their partnership work through the Energy Central Institute, the project focusses on employer-led learning, virtual work experience, workplace insight, and careers-focused activity, to help students and graduates understand the opportunities, skills, and career pathways shaping the North East’s low carbon future.
Employer engagement is free of charge.
Low Carbon North: Sustainable Futures is a collaborative project delivered by Durham University and Newcastle University, funded by the Northern Net Zero Accelerator.
The project is designed to strengthen future talent pipelines into the offshore wind and low carbon energy sector by connecting employers with students and graduates through practical, employer-led careers and work-based learning activity.
Employers can get involved by providing work-based learning briefs, hosting workplace or site visits, and contributing to student and staff-focused CPD activity.
The project supports students and graduates from across both universities and is designed to showcase the wide range of roles that contribute to the low carbon economy.
The North East is already a sector-leading region for offshore wind, low carbon energy and clean growth, with established strengths across industry, infrastructure, innovation, and the wider supply chain.
As demand for low carbon skills continues to grow, employers need access to a skilled, informed and motivated future workforce. Low Carbon North: Sustainable Futures helps build that pipeline by connecting students and graduates with the organisations, roles, and real-world challenges driving the region’s low carbon economy.
Many students and graduates are interested in sustainability, innovation, and purpose-led careers, but may not yet understand the breadth of opportunities available across the low carbon sector.
Low Carbon North: Sustainable Futures helps bridge that gap by creating meaningful connections between employers, students, graduates, and university staff.
We are particularly keen to showcase the full range of roles that support the low carbon economy, including technical, commercial, analytical, operational, communications, policy, project management, and business-focused careers.
There are flexible ways for employers to take part, depending on your organisation’s interests, capacity, and availability.
Provide a work-based learning brief
You can provide a real-world challenge or project brief for students and graduates to work on through structured virtual work experience.
Briefs might focus on a live business question, sector challenge, innovation opportunity, customer need, sustainability issue or future skills priority.
This gives students the opportunity to apply their knowledge to real-world problems while helping employers gain fresh perspectives and build early connections with future talent.
Host a workplace or site visit
You can help students and graduates experience the sector first-hand by hosting a workplace visit, site tour, or insight session.
These activities can help students understand working environments, technologies, job roles, career routes, and the skills needed to progress into the sector.
Speak at student-facing careers activity
You can contribute to student and graduate careers activity through talks, panels, Q&A sessions or sector insight events.
These sessions help students better understand the range of opportunities available, including entry routes, role types, recruitment expectations, and future workforce needs.
Support careers staff learning and CPD
You can contribute to CPD activity for careers professionals, academics, and regional university staff.
This helps those who advise and teach students to better understand the offshore wind and low carbon sector, including labour market trends, skills needs, role types, and future opportunities.
By supporting staff knowledge, you can help improve the quality and reach of careers education across the region.
We welcome a wide range of employers who contribute to the low carbon and offshore wind sector in the North East.
This includes organisations working directly in offshore wind, low carbon energy, solar and renewable energy, as well as those operating across the wider regional supply chain.
Employers may include, for example:
Whether your organisation is directly delivering low carbon energy projects or supporting the wider ecosystem that makes them possible, there are flexible ways to get involved.
By taking part in Low Carbon North: Sustainable Futures, you can:
Low Carbon North: Sustainable Futures is launched from 1 May 2026 with delivery taking place until 30 April 2027.
Employer engagement opportunities will take place throughout the project, with flexible options depending on your organisation’s availability and preferred level of involvement.
Our project team will work with you to identify the most appropriate form of engagement.
Help shape the future low carbon workforce while raising your organisation’s profile with students and graduates from Durham University and Newcastle University.
To get involved, complete our expression of interest form or email work.experience@durham.ac.uk to arrange a conversation with our project delivery team.
If you are interested in supporting the work experience of our students but don't match the criteria of supporting low carbon and offshore wind sectors, you can still provide support, please see our Work Based Learning Programmes for Employers - Durham University page for more information.
/filters:quality(70)/prod01/prodbucket01/media/durham-university/support-services-/careers-and-employability/45339-hero.jpg)