Six students from West Cumbria have spent time in their summer holidays taking part in an engineering sustainability challenge at Sellafield's Engineering Centre of Excellence.

The students spent eight days on the summer sprint project, aiming to find effective ways to reduce carbon emissions at the Cleator Moor centre and help Sellafield reach its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

The students, who are college attendees or have just sat their GCSE's, were given a budget of £250,000 to work with and focused on three categories: reduction of power usage, alternative off-grid power sources, and the culture and opinions of staff and stakeholders at the centre.

Students spent a week on the project at the Engineering Centre of Excellence, before spending three days working on the project at Lakes College.

Students then presented their findings to senior managers at the centre in a specially-arranged project outbrief event.

The students recommended several measures to effectively reduce carbon emissions at the Engineering Centre of Excellence.

These included roof insulation, tinted or stained windows, double or triple glazing, wind energy, and signage with carbon reduction messaging.

The students Jackson Benn, from Moresby (who attended Lakes College); Dylan Penn from Cleator Moor (St Benedict’s); Dylan Stalker, from Egremont (Lakes College), Harley Berragan from Cleator Moor (West Lakes Academy); Aaron Currier, from Whitehaven (Lakes College); and Keegan Holliday from Workington (Workington Academy), all explained how they had learned from the pilot summer sprint experience.

They said it had improved their communication skills, ability to develop ideas, time management, ability to work independently, adapt to working in a new environment and with new people, learning from experienced engineers, improved their knowledge of what working on a project involves and enabled them to work as a team.

Craig Branney, Sellafield Ltd's Head of Off-Site Developments, said: “This is our first summer sprint working with Lakes College and the Centre for Leadership Performance and it has been a really positive experience. What is crucial now is how we work together to make sure there are job opportunities for them in the supply chain.

“We have given them their first taste of what an engineering career involves. For me now it’s vital we find out how we complete the loop and get them into employment."

Sharon Baillie, Lakes College Business Engagement Manager, said: “The students have shown fantastic commitment to take part in the sprint and develop their skills in their own time. This is going to stand them in good stead when they are looking for employment.”

Sophie Reynolds, Centre for Leadership Performance’s Workplace Programmes Manager, said; “It was really interesting to see such a big change in the students from the start of the project to the presentation just ten days later. They have all come a massively long way.”