It has been an incredible two years at the Darwin Centre, winning awards at Welsh and UK national level. The charity based at Pembrokeshire College, which has been running since 1994, has engaged over 50,000 members of the Pembrokeshire community, working with all schools, many community groups, families, and visitors to our county. Since 2005, the Darwin Experience education programme developed by Darwin Executive director Marten Lewis, has been sponsored by Dragon LNG, Waterston. The whole project is free to schools including their transport costs, which removes any barriers to those from less affluent areas.

The Darwin Experience has become embedded in the educational fabric of Pembrokeshire in that time, with the county council’s director of children and schools, Kate Evan-Hughes commenting: “Schools in Pembrokeshire see the project as an integral part of the school curriculum; many headteachers describe the project as inspirational.”

In times where resources for schools are under unprecedented pressure, The Darwin Centre has developed an incredibly effective model for success, built around a voluntary sector organisation with experience and expertise in the science, technology, engineering, and maths education arena; sponsored by the private sector; to add value to the public sectors education efforts. The model which is recognised by Welsh Government as sector leading practice, resulted in the Dragon LNG Darwin Experience winning the education award at last year’s South Wales Chambers of Commerce business awards. In the same year, the project won the education title at the Responsible Business Awards for Wales.

This summer, the project won the coveted UK Responsible Business Awards at the Royal Albert Hall, London. The awards which are run by Business in the Community, a Prince of Wales charity, is the biggest and longest running Business Awards in the UK, recognised internationally as the pinnacle of social responsibility. With over 250 entries from all regions of the UK, The Dragon LNG Darwin partnership was the only Welsh winner, knocking out companies such as Toyota, and Royal Bank of Scotland as the judging process developed. After being shortlisted to 10 projects from dozens of entrants, Marten Lewis, Darwin Centre executive director, Maria Pena, managing director at Dragon LNG, and Emily Hughes (former pupil of Roch School), were interviewed in London by a panel of judges, including the directors of global giants Amazon UK, Rothschild’s and Co, and Goldman Sachs. International news giant the Financial Times had the announcement rights to the awards and even featured a case study of the Pembrokeshire partnership, which described the project as fuelling the ambition of young people in Pembrokeshire.

Marten Lewis said: “Reaching the final and being recognised as a top five project was a huge achievement, to win outright was beyond our dreams when we began our journey a decade ago; it is testimony to all our hard work at the Darwin Centre, the commitment of Dragon LNG’s sponsorship, and the willingness of Pembrokeshire schools to engage in hands on learning.”

The project which is supported by Pembrokeshire County Council, Pembrokeshire College, and the Bluestone Foundation, has secured core funding from Dragon LNG for a further three years from 2017, and looks set to continue to offer excellence in STEM learning to Pembrokeshire, and to inspire generations of young people for years to come.