From Project Assistant to Project Coordinator: The power of inhouse training

At FairWind our people are at the heart of our business, so we are always keen to hear about initiatives designed to nurture talent and develop the key skills that help us deliver the highest quality service for our customers.

One such success story is our “From Project Assistant to Project Coordinator” training pilot. The programme was devised as part of the post‑acquisition integration of Wind1000, following a joint assessment led by Simona Moisescu, Head of HR MED, and Sebastian Młyński, Head of Onshore MED, which identified gaps in skills, role definition, and operating processes between legacy structures and FairWind’s operating model.

The absence of a Project Coordinator role within the Wind1000 structure highlighted the need to harmonize, elevate, and professional roles and ways of working across teams and regions.

Creating a new inhouse training programme not only addressed the need to upskill the project assistants but supported greater consistency in how teams worked across the regions.

The pilot quickly demonstrated the benefits of providing on-site training to up and coming talent. Laura Cabanas Fernández was chosen at the first project assistant for the pilot and was supported throughout the process by mentor Fabrizio Mason.

Laura and Fabrizio began working on the programme taking it from an initial draft into a structured, evolving training pathway to promotion. Their hard work paid off with Laura promoted a full year ahead of the project’s timeline.

The programme involved considerable change for Laura. As a project assistant her role was largely document focused and the training programme opened up a much wider set of responsibilities including project logistics and coordination; working with generators and site facilities; team organisation; client communication and meeting management; decision‑making; and understanding the full lifecycle of a project.

Rising to the challenge, Laura found the programme extremely comprehensive saying, “Everything was useful… but I especially enjoyed the communication with the client and organising the teams.”

Laura also found the regular support provide Fabrizio invaluable, “We talked every week. I learned a lot from Fabrizio. The programme was very complete, and I’m very happy I was the first to try it.”

An unexpected outcome from the pilot was the two-way learning that developed. Ideas were shared at each session and the collaborative approach that the two took made the experience more meaningful. As Fabrizio explained: “It wasn’t just me teaching Laura. Every time we spoke, I also learned from her—her European experiences, her ideas, how projects run in different countries.”

“Laura had never been in South America before, and she brought new ideas from Spain and Europe. We shared experiences, which made the training richer for both of us.”

The initiative will continue, and thanks to the combined input from Laura and Fabrizio, the programme will now evolve with additional content, tools, and refinements.

Congratulations to both Laura and Fabrizio with the last word on career development going to Laura, “Take the opportunity. Growing is always good, but learning is even better. You gain skills, experience, and you build relationships that last.”