Bringing renewable energy education to Indigenous students with hands-on workshops

Photo credit: Relay Education

When Dwight Peigan steps into classrooms to deliver workshops demonstrating the power of renewable energy, he finds students to be enthusiastic and optimistic.

“No matter where I’m at, they’re very hopeful and they’re forward-thinking,” he says.

Peigan is the Saskatchewan and Territories Coordinator for Relay Education, a Canadian charity that delivers hands-on workshops on renewable energy for students as well as job training for the renewable energy sector.

The workshops, which are supported by Scotiabank, range from interactive experiments to industry education and are designed to be fun and serve as an entry point to discussions around renewable energy sources like solar and wind. Relay sees this education as foundational to the vision that inspired the charity at its inception in 2011: a future powered completely by renewable energy. Relay found that idea resonated with young people.

The Toronto-based charity now offers its workshops in communities across Canada but, from its start, developed strong connections with various Indigenous communities where there was an interest for renewable energy initiatives.

Relay’s workshops are enabled through funding from Scotiabank, as part of its efforts to distribute $25 million in community investments with organizations that support climate-related systems change and sector decarbonization by 2030. As well, it falls under the umbrella of ScotiaRISE, Scotiabank's $500 million community investment initiative to help strengthen economic resilience for individuals, families and communities.

It also aligns with the Bank’s Truth & Reconciliation Action Plan, launched in 2024, which contains 37 commitments across six strategic pillars aimed at rebuilding relationships of trust among Indigenous Clients, Employees and Communities.  

For Peigan, a member of the Pasqua First Nation, the workshops in Indigenous schools feel especially impactful, as he says these schools often don’t get access to this type of hands-on learning.

Wesley Normington, Relay Education’s Executive Director, says some of the first communities to host their workshops were Indigenous communities in southwestern Ontario developing renewable energy projects. He says the communities wanted to engage their youth and have them understand the benefits of the projects for the community.

“Indigenous communities, from my experience, are really advocates when it comes to sustainability and being conscientious of the environment,” says Normington, whose prior work in international disaster relief dealing with extreme weather events left him with a determination to combat climate change.

Elementary and high school students

For elementary school students, interactive workshops like Plug in the Sun and Capture the Wind have students converting the sun’s energy into electricity and building a wind turbine to power a light bulb. In addition to being fun, the workshops tend to naturally align with the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) curriculum. Students also learn more broadly about energy, including the basics of electricity and how traditional fossil fuel energy sources produce greenhouse gases and contribute to climate change.

For high school students, Relay puts on more advanced workshops, including their Green Collar Careers presentation where students identify how their interests and aptitudes might align with various sustainable careers, including in renewable energy. Students hear about growing industries like solar and wind, learn how many current and projected jobs there are, what skills they would need, pay rates, and even how Relay can help interested students enter the workforce.

Part of what Peigan tries to instill in all students is the importance of finishing high school and planning a career, with the renewable energy sector being a solid option. He says this message is especially important in Indigenous communities, noting that Indigenous youth have lower graduation rates than non-Indigenous youth.

Peigan says he’s increasingly noticed that after finishing a workshop, students are approaching him to learn more. “It always ends with a really good feeling,” he says.

In addition to delivering workshops to local communities, a big part of Peigan’s role as Relay Education’s Saskatchewan and Territories Coordinator is recruiting new facilitators to help spread the charity’s reach. But Peigan was actually on the other end of this process when he was recruited by Relay Education in 2021 as part of the charity’s Train the Trainer program, which Scotiabank was a founding funder of.

Scotiabank supports the Train the Trainer program

To best serve Indigenous communities, many of which are in rural and remote areas, Relay Education’s Train the Trainer program identifies community members and equips them with the knowledge and skills to deliver workshops locally. Normington says this approach enables them to expand their reach and tailor the workshops to the local community, such as by highlighting a type of renewable energy applicable to the area or incorporating Indigenous cultural beliefs.

By expanding Relay Education’s workshops into more areas, Train the Trainer also creates employment opportunities for individuals in underserved communities to become facilitators, equipping them with community engagement and public speaking skills. That helps to empower them to advance STEM education in their community and can build overall momentum for sustainability, potentially leading to more young people entering the growing industry.

To help build on Train the Trainer’s success, Scotiabank has renewed support for Relay Education through an investment of $405,000 over three years. Funding will enable training for 60 Indigenous educators who will provide workshops to 3,000 Indigenous youth in Canada.

“Since the beginning, Scotiabank’s been a big supporter of our work with Indigenous communities across Canada,” Normington says.

“Scotiabank recognizes the important role of education and awareness building in safeguarding the health of our planet and driving action for a more sustainable future;” said Meigan Terry, Senior Vice President & Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer. “We look forward to the continued impact of Relay Education’s programs helping train educators and inspire young people across Canada towards a future powered by renewable energy.”

More recently, Relay has been able to expand its reach internationally by partnering with educational organizations in the Caribbean and elsewhere.

The Bank’s community investment will also enable 1,750 youth in Barbados, Guyana and Jamaica to participate in renewable energy workshops tailored to their curriculum and will lead to the employment of ten individuals through Relay Education’s solar installation workshops.

Building careers in sustainability

After seeing how excited students were about renewable energy in workshops, Relay Education launched Green Skills Academy to provide career training.

Through this initiative, Relay offers free multi-week programs on solar installation, wind energy technology, geographic information systems (GIS) mapping and sustainable agriculture. Once they’re equipped with the appropriate safety and workplace certifications, practical job training, and networking and career guidance, participants walk away from the Green Skills Academy ready to launch their career and contribute to the expansion of sustainable infrastructure.

Normington says the charity also tailors programs to specific communities. For example, Relay Education has identified three communities in Nunavut where they’re training fifteen members of each community in cabin solar installation.

Although not required, Normington says many participants in the solar installation program have a background in roofing or electrical, and the program offers the opportunity to upskill and support the growing renewable energy sector.

“The goal is giving everybody the opportunity to participate in that transition to a sustainable future,” Normington says.