Birmingham’s ‘eco warriors’ boost their career credentials

• Apr. 18 by Natalie Eccleshall (0)

Birmingham’s secondary schools are set to be the first to boast ‘Eco Ambassadors’, in the hope of raising awareness of environmental issues following a new scheme set up by ‘Birmingham Friends Of The Earth’ project.

The aptly-named ‘Eco Ambassadors Project’ will ‘promote’ secondary school students from years 7-8 who are members of an ‘Eco Council’, which meets once a week for an hour. During this time the pupils will be taught some of the basic principles of environmental issues and projects they can be involved with.

Following their initial ten weeks in the council, pupils will be encouraged to rise to an ‘Ambassador’ status. This will incur privileges such as: participating in various activities/projects, & going on school trips to The Northfield Eco Centre, The Centre of the Earth, & Millennium Point.

Environmental outreach officer for BFOE, Karl Whale outlines how being an ‘Eco Ambassador’ will benefit their career prospects:

“They’d have opportunities to do things which will look good on their their C.V, such as: making small films on environmental issues in their area, creating a web page for their school, & taking part in potential green design projects.

After the Eco-ambassadors have been fully trained the intention is that they will go to primary schools and teach younger kids about what they’ve learnt.”

The project branches from the ‘Birmingham Friends of the Earth Outreach project’, which strives to ‘create greater awareness of our work on green issues in local areas.’ The project approaches schools, businesses and local community groups, finding out what areas of concern they have and trying to find an efficient solution.

The Eco-Ambassadors project derives from this process, responding to the surge in National awareness of our need to be increasingly ‘green’, and it is widely believed that these fundamental lessons of life should start while young.

It is hoped that once the project has launched, 50 ‘Eco Ambassadors’ will host ‘Dimension Days’ once a month to work together towards a goal associated with their chosen subjects.

Karl is optimistic about the project’s future:

“The project is still in its early stages, so more could be potentially added but it’s huge already”.