The EU-funded project Adapting a Transparent Training Program (ATTP) for wind energy has presented a set of common standards to the Global Wind Organisation (GWO), which will be used for basic technical training for wind turbine technicians, project partner Tradium said in a press release.
The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) estimates that there will be 400 GW of wind turbine capacity installed in the EU by 2030, as a result of which there will be a need for an annual inflow of 40,000 employees to the wind energy sector. The ATTP project aims to facilitate this inflow by making it easier for the global wind energy companies to get qualified labour for installation and maintenance of wind turbines, and to make it easier for new employees to get into the European wind energy industry thanks to universally recognised training standards.
Speaking at the ATTP final conference in Berlin, at which the standards were presented, GWO Training Committee Chairman Jan Laugesen said that, if everything goes to plan, the GWO expected to approve the standards for basic technical training in the spring of 2015.
The ATTP project is an EU Transfer-of-Innovation Leonardo da Vinci project, co-funded by the Lifelong Learning Programme. The project’s main objectives were to develop a vocational training program that is recognised and transparent, and to have a pilot try-out of the program. The final conference brought together participating project partners from Denmark, Sweden, Spain, the United Kingdom and Germany along with representatives from the wind industry and other stakeholders.
At the Berlin conference, the UK wind turbine organisation Renewables Training Network also indicated that it is working to recognize common standards in Britain. While this organisation is not a member of the Global Wind Organisation, the two organisations work closely together and recognize each other's standards. ATTP Project Coordinator Anne B. Mortensen also noted that the fact that German wind company Enercon also chose to take part in the project, even though they are not a GWO member, indicated that there is significant interest in this project, and that its results will be in demand in the industry.
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