Eden welcomes PM’s announcement on 10,000 green placements for the young

The Eden Project today welcomed Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour Party conference announcement of 10,000 new green work placements, a programme to be delivered in partnership with Eden.

September 29

Outlining how the Government plans to unlock the talents of the young, Mr Brown said: “I can also announce that we will work with the Eden Project and Mayday Network to create the biggest group of green work placements we have ever done - up to 10,000 green job placements so that our young people can make the most of the opportunities of the low carbon economy and open it up for their abilities to flourish.”

Eden’s Managing Director Gaynor Coley welcomed Mr Brown’s announcement. She said: “The Prime Minister’s announcement is great news.

“Education and the environment are at the heart of what we do at Eden and during the summer we ran a very successful Green Talent pilot project in partnership with Arrival Education which enabled the young people taking part to understand our dependence on the natural world and that we have to adapt – and adapt quickly - to the challenges of the 21st Century.

“This inspired them to ask ‘What can I do?’, so the second step was to introduce them to how they could become agents of change in the world of work.

“There are companies out there, in particular within the Mayday Network, that already employ people in exciting jobs focussed on sustainable futures and, once they were introduced, the energy exploded. So we knew we had a powerful model and we want to expand it as fast as possible.”

Eden is in discussion with the Government and the Mayday Network – the UK’s largest group of businesses committed to taking action on climate change - on the detail of how the green work placements will be funded and delivered.

Young people are expected to come from all over the UK and will combine a spell at the Eden Project with going out to companies all over the network.

Eden is an educational charity and one of Britain’s leading visitor attractions, drawing more than one million visitors a year. The educational programmes host more than 40,000 young people a year with challenges such as “Don’t Forget your Leech Socks” and outreach projects such as “Survive and Thrive”.