The Project
Working together to place sustainability at the heart of education, inspiring our children and young people to explore green careers and build the skills for a more sustainable future in Somerset.
Aims of the project
Welcome to a more sustainable Somerset
The Somerset Sustainable Futures initiative aims to support schools and teachers to promote a green curriculum and highlight green careers by developing relevant and meaningful learning experiences and resources which are co-created with Somerset businesses, stakeholders and most importantly, the young people of Somerset.
Have a look below our past Sustainable future events which supported sharing businesses, local projects and organisations across Somerset who are already working towards a more sustainable future, as well as information about green skills, careers and job roles.
Our Sustainable Future Events 2026!
We held two incredible days at our Sustainable Futures events for primary school pupils and one for secondary school students, bringing together employers, educators, and young people to explore career pathways in digital innovation and sustainability:
Our Primary event was held at Yeovil Town Football Club on Thursday 29th January 2026.
We were so impressed by the presentations from all of the primary school students. Their responses to the questions “Is New Technology Helping or Hurting the Planet?” Were well researched, balanced and insightful and they showed such confidence when presenting their ideas to a large audience!
Our Secondary event was held at Taunton Racecourse and Conference Centre on Monday 9th February 2026.
Once again, we were blown away by the calibre of presentations delivered by the students, this time from local secondary schools. They tackled the question “Does Rapid Technological Advancement Support or Threaten a Sustainable Future?” with such balanced thinking, teamwork and brilliant presenting skills. We were also incredibly impressed by the thoughtful questions students posed to one another, and their ability to listen, reflect and take on board different points of view.
We had some fantastic employers who joined us for the Green Careers Fair. You engaged so wonderfully with the children and brought a fabulous mix of hands – on activities and resources that really got the children thinking about sustainability, technology and the huge range of green careers across different industries, Such as..
ABP UK, Exmoor National Park, Liz Lister – Graphic Science, Young Enterprise, Kiely Bros, Kier Group, M Group, MCS Building Services LTD, Ministry of Eco Education, NHS, Rookwood Operations Ltd, Sir Robert McAlpine, Geoconnected, Stantec, UK Hydrographic Office, YTL UK Group, NFU (National Farmers Union), Institution of Chemical Engineers, EDF UK, Screwfix, National Trust, Somerset Wildlife Trust, Singers Instruments, UCS College Group
We were lucky to have Thomas Pether from the Ministry of Eco Education leading an inspiring session at our secondary event on sustainability and the challenges facing our climate. Also Dr Beth Lane from AI in Schools for delivering at both events some wonderful sessions on the responsible us of AI.
We were also fortunate to have a wonderful introductory video from Neil Trevett from NVIDIA that helped children understand how AI is already being used to tackle sustainability and environmental challenges which really set the scene for the day!
Feedback from the young people at the primary and secondary event..
What part did you like best about today?
- The Career Event
- Talking to people
- Giving the presentation, The interesting careers fair ( And the free things!)
- I enjoyed it all of it but the presentation and the drones.
- Asking questions, Looking at different stalls and flying the drones
- The job experiences
- Careers fair and listening to the other schools presentations.
What new things did you learn?
- We learnt to build a bridge, you needed to talk to lots of people with a wide variety of jobs.
- That AI can do a lot of good
- That by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the sea!
- There are different ways to help the planet and lots of jobs to do to help the environment.
- About technology and the effects and good things. Also learning about jobs for the future
- I learnt there are many reasons for climate change
- I learnt skills needed for jobs/Employers and also what a sustainable future is.
- That AI isn’t only bad
- I have learnt about being more eco friendly
- Many businesses are trying to take a sustainable route
Employers feedback from the event..
- Brilliant, It was interactive and offering a range of experience from different sectors
- One of the best careers events as it encourages meaningful activities
- It was very well organised and majority of students were interested
- It was a brilliant event, very well organized. The kids were such a delight, really polite and asked interesting, engaging questions so i felt like they took something positive out of the day which is lovely!
- Good variety between more “Corporate”, technology and land based (Exmoor national park etc) to showcase choice
