25.05.2020

Wind Turbine Technician Training During Coronavirus

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How do you continue to provide important training to the wind industry while keeping trainees and staff safe?

While most wind energy training centers closed during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, European Wind Academy was one of a very few that remained opened thanks to the implementation of strict safety and training procedures.

The continuation of training activity at European Wind Academy during this challenging time was noticed by the Global Wind Organisation, who invited the training center to share their experiences in the GWO’s Expert Series Webinar.

You can watch the full webinar below:

The decision to continue training was not an easy one and had to take into account the safety of both trainees and staff. In discussion with parent company FairWind, projects managers and wind turbine technicians working in the field, it was decided to stay open to ensure European Wind Academy could continue to provide proper education to the more than 1000 wind turbine technician dependant on the center for their training needs.

“We decided to stay open because we need to support our business and remain operational for our employees and the technicians we serve,” said Witold Szczepkowski, Academy Manager.

“While Covid-19 will stay with us for a long time, these preparations have limited the threat to our trainers and students, thus allowing us to do our part to help keep the wind industry operational during the pandemic.”

After patient zero was diagnosed in Poland on March 4th (where the training center is based), European Wind Academy quickly implemented internal procedures and made adaptations to their training programmes to mitigate infection risk.

While closely monitoring the situation in Poland and Europe, they considered advice from the World Health Organisation and Global Wind Organization, as well as guidelines from the Polish government, in establishing new safety procedures to protect against coronavirus infection.

Security measures included limiting the number of people in training groups and establishing special entry procedures such as obligatory hand disinfection and body temperature checks. Training programs were modified as well, such as using training dummies more frequently and avoiding close contact.

European Wind Academy was founded in 2017 as a close training partner and sister company to FairWind, a wind turbine installation and service provider.

In this short time they have become one of the top 10 GWO (Global Wind Organization) training providers worldwide.

Currently European Wind Academy provides courses in:

  • GWO Basic Safety Training (BST)
  • GWO Basic Technical Training (BTT)
  • SHE Rescue (Enercon)
  • LMB Ladders (Enercon)
  • Siemens Gamesa Technical Training (SGTT)

For a full list of training courses, see the European Wind Academy website.