Are you involved in your local community or do you work for a voluntary or public sector organisation?

Build your skills and knowledge by joining us for our online energy training course. Run over 3 sessions (1.5 hours per week), this enjoyable and informative course aims to raise awareness of ways to save energy, support schemes, and how you can advise others to reduce costs and manage energy bills. You will then get practical resources that you can share with others and ongoing updates after the course.

This information is never more important than at the current time. Average annual energy costs are due to drop to £2,077 from 1st July but the energy crisis is far from over. Overall there will be little difference in energy costs next winter as we will not receive the £400 energy bill support, leading to ongoing challenges around heating a home and paying energy bills. This is against a background of an increasing problem around debt, with energy debt having risen by 43% in October 2022, even before the winter hit.

You will learn about:

• Fuel poverty and the impact on health
• The current situation around energy prices, energy suppliers and what to do if clients can't afford to pay
• Understanding an energy bill and tips to manage bills
• Understanding energy use in the home
• Energy efficiency and energy saving tips
• Carbon monoxide awareness and unsafe heating/cooking methods
• Financial grants and other support schemes to help vulnerable groups pay their bills and cut costs
• Becoming part of a network of Community Energy Ambassadors

All content is updated for every course to reflect ongoing changes in the world of energy.

Please note that this is a 3-week course, 1.5 hours per week

Wed 4th October 2023, 1.30 - 3pm

Wed 11th October 2023, 1.30 - 3pm

Wed 18th October 2023, 1.30 - 3pm

The course is funded by Northern Gas Networks and is free to anyone who is based within their operating area (most of Yorkshire, Northern Cumbria and the North East of England).

Feedback from previous courses

This will be our 45th Energy Ambassadors course since the pandemic started back in April 2020 and we have received some excellent feedback:

"This has to have been one of the most useful and informative courses I have attended in a long time, with direct relevance to our client group (older people) at this time".

"One of the best courses, informative, interesting and useful. Trainers who delivered made the course enjoyable. Great team."

"Excellent course. As well as actually enjoying it, I really felt I learnt a lot of relevant information which will help our clients and also my own knowledge/experience. Kate and Chris have to be congratulated on being so up to date in a very changing/challenging period. Brilliant."

"One of the best courses for information I have ever done - delivered really well and very engaging facilitators thank you"

"It was brilliant. Pitched at the right level. Each session was the perfect length of time. Lots of great information and signposting"

"All of the course content was helpful. Best course I have attended in ages. Thank you"

"Thank you for the course, I have taken part in a lot of seminars and other online training over the last few months and I have to say I enjoyed yours the most. The material was specific to the topic and will be very useful in my day to day contacts with our members. Also it was nice to have relaxed chat all the way through and to have some fun. Other training I have done has not had this and it really makes a big difference. When we used to do training in person (remember that??) there was always chat over coffee and in breaks and it is an important part of the training".