National Grid – community engagement

ClientEnergy giant National Grid plcSummaryAward-winning project to engage young people in energy issues

National Grid appointed us to help deliver an important corporate social responsibility project – to address the national skills shortage by encouraging young people into science careers.

The company had just built an interactive educational centre focused on energy in north-west London, based on its seven-year infrastructure programme to rewire the Capital. We worked to bring the facility to life by defining how it should operate, bringing in the first young people and testing its impact.

What we did

This fascinating, eight-month exercise spanned:

  • advising on the best name for the facility: we recommended ‘The Energy Education Centre’, which the client adopted
  • developing a plan to get the first young people in, focusing on working with London schools
  • building links with head teachers across the Capital and arranging the first pupil visits
  • creating age-appropriate materials including a website and educational booklets
  • arranging & hosting the school visits, incorporating expert talks from National Grid engineers
  • auditing the effectiveness of the project & making recommendations for improvement

Results

Our project proved a great success in piloting how the Energy Education Centre would work and demonstrating its effectiveness.

Against the objective of enthusing young people about energy issues, 99% said they ‘enjoyed their visit’ – 80% ‘a great deal’ – while 99% felt they learnt something and 76% learnt ‘a great deal’. Interest in science careers rose significantly.

One 13-year-old girl told us: “This has been brilliant – the most interesting trip we’ve ever been on.”

The Head of Science from one school said: “This visit’s been amazing. Our pupils stayed engaged throughout and learnt a lot. They’re bored by visiting the Science Museum now and groan when we say we’re going. You’ve provided something fresh and different.”

Awards

Our project won two industry awards:

  • Best Corporate & Business Communications
  • Best Community Project

The client’s view

“TK Associates ran an eight-month communications programme to help National Grid get one of our high-profile CSR projects off the ground and proved themselves tenacious, focused and professional.

Tariq provided sound advice on how to deliver the project effectively and developed a structured programme to deliver results, including measurement of the effectiveness of our project. They worked hard as part of a close team with our staff and delivered on time and to a high standard.

They’ve delivered a project that’s helped us to quantify the value of a considerable CSR investment, ensuring National Grid continues to improve our performance in this area.

I highly recommend TK Associates as a thoughtful, hard-working, focused agency.”

Donald Johnson, Head of Corporate Brand, National Grid plc