ACCIONA and Extremadura´s Regional Education Department sign an agreement to introduce the ‘Sustainability workshop’ in the region´s schools

Extremadura's Regional Minister for Education, Trinidad Nogales, and ACCIONA's General Manager of Sustainability, Juan Ramón Silva, have signed a collaboration agreement by which the on-line version of the Company's 'Sustainability Workshop' will be introduced in the region's schools. The Workshop will be adapted to the region's current schools curriculum.

The Sustainability Workshop is an education program drawn up by ACCIONA in 1995, aimed at youngsters between the ages of 10 and 16. It focuses on a range of aspects of sustainability and sustainable development and is part of the Company's commitment to spread the sustainability message to all those in its sphere of influence, wherever it operates.

The agreement signed by the Regional Government and ACCIONA sets out to integrate education in sustainability, taking it to the classroom using new technologies and getting youngsters involved in an entertaining and interactive way, in an effort to make them understand that caring for and protecting the environment is key to building a brighter future.

Before the Sustainability Workshop is finally introduced, a number of training sessions for teachers will be held at Teacher and Resources Centers in Navalmoral de la Mata, Plasencia, Badajoz, Don Benito and Jerez de los Caballeros. The sessions are expected to get under way in school year 2012/2013.

The Sustainability Workshop has adapted its education model to suit toady's technological needs. At the beginning of school year 2010-2011, ACCIONA launched, via the www.sostenibilidad.com website, a ground-breaking educational format, and pupils and teachers alike now have online access to the full range of educational content:

• An online course for teachers which brings the teachers up to speed on sustainability and helps them to explain it in the classroom and meet the Workshop's targets.
• A tool for pupils which enables them to do the Sustainability Workshop exercises on their PCs and with the teacher's supervision.
• Workshops and Experiments. The Sustainability Workshop extends its lines of action and helps give pupils new skills by explaining sustainability concepts and technologies.

During the last school year, around 10,659 youngsters in Navarre and Catalonia benefitted from this initiative.