Wind Tech Training Excellence at Deutsche Windtechnik

Momme Feddersen and Russ Leach from Deutsche Windtechnik discuss
their innovative training programs for wind turbine technicians.
Momme, as Head of Training Center, and Russ, as Director of Quality
and Ops Support, explore how the company is tackling workforce
challenges through apprenticeships and advanced training methods in
both Europe and the US. Fill out our Uptime listener survey and
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show? Email us! Allen Hall: Wind Energy is facing a critical
workforce challenge, finding and retaining skilled technicians to
maintain the growing fleet of turbines. This week we speak with
Momme Feddersen and Russ Leach from Deutsche Windtechnik. Deutsche
Windtechnik is setting new standards for technician development
through their comprehensive training programs, combining hands-on
experience with cutting edge technology. Welcome to Uptime
Spotlight, shining Light on Wind Energy's brightest innovators.
This is the Progress Powering Tomorrow. Allen Hall: Momme and Russ,
welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast Spotlight. Momme
Feddersen: Thank you. Good to be here. Thank you so much. Allen
Hall: Well Deutche Wind Technique. Has always, to me, been a really
high standard in terms of a company. But that comes through
training. And Deutsche Windtechnik spends a great amount of time
and energy on the training side. I want to talk to some of the
challenges that are out there first, and what are some of those
challenges that exist in training wind turbine technicians today?
Russ Leach: Yeah, so they're the same ones we've had since my
entire time in wind. It's finding the qualified personnel who are
ready, available to climb that turbine and do great maintenances
and great troubleshooting. The problem has been exacerbated with
the growth of renewables with wind, right? They're harder to come
by. Um, And we're all fighting for the same people, aren't we? So
that's why we have our training programs, right? We have to start
people out from nothing many times and build them up and get those
competencies out there with them. Um, and, um, that's the main
challenge. Plus the distributed nature of the workforce, right?
We're, we're across the country here in MoMA, they're, they're
across Europe. And, um, so you have to put mechanisms in place to
get the training to them many times and get them competent and, and
verified as competent many times out where they're at. So it's a
combination of Training facilities, which are very valuable, but
also training that extends out to the field with the people
themselves. Allen Hall: And Mame, let's talk about the technical
challenges because wind turbines have gotten more complicated.
There's more computers in them. There's more electronics in them.
There's more cooling systems. How has that impacted the training of
technicians? Did it just make it harder because there's so much new
things happening? Momme Feddersen: Here in Deutsche Windtechnik, we
have to, we are focusing more and more on the, um, not on the, on
the, on the MOOC. Highest moderns, tur, modern turbines, um, but
more, um, on the older ones. So, um, but uh, when we look into the
future, the, the topics you say are, are exactly the topics we have
to, we have to face. Um, what what we did in the past was focusing
on the practical side of the training and not focusing on the
theoretical side. That's why I think we did a. Kind of, um,
interesting approach, uh, how we train here in Germany. Um, as you
know, we are a multi brand, uh, company. We are servicing different
brands. We are not focusing on Vestas or on Anaconda or something
like that. We are, we have all of them. Also a challenge. And
that's why, um, we did that approach here in Germany, uh, what I
think is outstanding in the, in the home. Allen Hall: And that
comes with a unique thing that Deutsche Wing Technik does, is that
you do have resources for the variety of turbines, which I think
just makes this really complicated. Discuss the sort of the
differences between what happens in Europe for Deutsche Wind
Technique. Momme Feddersen: Yeah, we have different, uh, different,
um, ways of training here in Germany. It depends on your
experience. It depends on your age, on your, uh, on your skills you
already got. Um, so for example, the, the people who are, who come
directly from school, then they don't know how to do it. So we have
to start with, with the real basics. Um, our apprenticeships
program, uh, starts when they are 18 years old, uh, directly from
school. And they are in, in Deutsche Windtechnik for three and a
half years, just with education, just with learning, just with
everything. So, um, there are ways to shorten the time, but, um,
yeah, you, you learn the basic. mechanic work in, in our training
center, for example. Um, this is one way to learn it. The other way
is when you have more experience, um, we got a level training for
the people who are already working in the field. So we don't stop
working on ourself. We don't stop educating ourself. Um, we have a
level training from basic to level two or level three, where you
learn how to troubleshoot very well. And the third one is the, uh,
the, the career changer program. This is one of my favorite
programs, I have to say, because these are people who are highly
motivated. These are people who come from completely different
fields, uh, uh, uh, in, in Germany, they all have, uh, uh, uh, uh,
had a job before. So for example, they are plumbers, they are
carpenters, they are something else. And in our training center,
they learn, um, the real, uh, the, the, the, to be a wind
technician, wind technician, they learn it in about six months, but
only in the training center they are here for six months. And then
they'll go out and they start working what they learned here in the
training center. And they did it and they do it then in the, in the
field. And that's my favorite program because, because the people.
see this as a second chance in their life and they learn something
completely new. Say they learn, um, to be an electrician. Um, and
as you said before, the turbines are more and more complex. They
are more and more, um, you have to be perfect in so many things.
You have to be a mechanic. You have to be a technician, an
electronic specialist. You have to be a Um, and yeah, so different
things, so, um, yeah, it's, it's quite complex. Joel Saxum: That's
a stark difference from what we see in the United States because,
um, and Russ, you can probably speak to this. You hear these,
sometimes you hear horror stories from whether it's an ISP, you
know, OEM, it doesn't really matter where it's like, Hey, you've
got your GWOs or even, you know, your equivalent of GWOs. You've
been safety trained. You got a couple of tickets, get out in the
field and now you're expecting to produce. Uh, throw, thrown right
into the fire. And, you know, from someone who grew up in some oil
and gas worlds, that's a tough place to be. That is a pretty ,
pretty, pretty stressful thing. Um, and so I know when Alan and I
initially talked with the DWT team about the training, how it goes
on in Germany, uh, it blew my mind. It was like three and a half
years of, of actual. Really, uh, curating these technicians to get
them to the point where they can get on their own in like three and
a half years in the States. I'm thinking, that's a bachelor's
degree. I'm at university. You know, that's a really advanced
person. Are you guys taking some of the, the lessons learned and
the training and, and applying that in the States to your, your
technicians here too? Russ Leach: Absolutely. We have our own
apprenticeship program. We stood it up in May. Um, it's a WIN
Laborer. It's part of the Department of Labor's Office of
Apprenticeship, um, under Construction Laborer. Really excited
about it. Um, the model is MoMA and what they do over there. Ours
is a two year. It's a two year. Um, and it combines many of the
same things. Um, we have our, uh, online learning. We have our in
person training. It's called Related Technical Instruction in the
Apprenticeship World. And we got a heavy dose of on the job
learning. It was structured on the job learning, well documented on
the job learning that leads to competency verification. So, We're
really excited about it. Um, that, and it's right now, it's geared
more towards the, uh, well, our existing training program. That was
the beauty of it, right? We had our existing program that we just
rolled right into a two year apprentice program. Um, but it's
geared more towards repower right now. What we're doing in January,
I'm super excited to say, is, is standing up one for O& M
Techs. Probably be two year. And many of the same things, slightly
different, um, around that too. So we have a structured learning
path now for our people. Again, we had that already here in the U.
S., right? But now it's registered with the Department of Labor to
their standards, with all the requirements for on the job learning.
You need 2, 000 hours a year minimum on the job learning. You need
144 hours of what's called related technical instruction, which is
basically, Classroom type stuff, right? And, and certain
structured, uh, um, competency verifications there. We got all
that. It's launched right now. And at the end of the day, they get
a certificate that's valid wherever, wherever they go. And, uh,
and, and Momay mentioned life changes. We have something kind of
similar to that too with veterans, with veterans. Um,