Senior pupils at Aberdeen's Lochside Academy have become the first students in the UK to sign up in their entirety to a new online training programme on climate change.

All of the Academy’s S5 and S6 pupils along with 25 members of staff have signed up to the Skills Development Scotland funded programme which will see them obtain a Climate Solutions Accelerator Certificate.

Using a completely online approach, the course is developed and accredited by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS) in partnership with the Universities of Edinburgh and Stirling, The Institute of Directors and Jump Digital, who also deliver it. The course offers students a significant understanding of the crucial issue of climate change, the science and policies and prepares them for how the subject will transform their lives while also providing optimism in terms of solution and opportunities in tackling the problem.

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Each pupil who successfully completes the programme will be awarded a certificate by the RSGS and their partners, and the pupil’s insights in the pilot course will be used to inform how it develops nationwide.

Councillor M Taqueer Malik, Aberdeen City Council's Education Operational Delivery Convener, said: "Congratulations to Neil Hendry and all at Lochside Academy for their ground-breaking participation in this innovative and vitally important programme.

"We pride ourselves as an authority on our imaginative and stimulating curriculum to help give our young people the best starts in life and it is difficult to think of a study more relevant to young lives than the challenges presented by climate change."