I was asked this week if there had been any progress made by EE-OZ in getting their turbine technician qualification off the ground here, and so chased up a few things and found out it is time for an update to posting on this topic.
However it is not EE-OZ that have made progress to this point, it is Box Hill Tafe. Box Hill Tafe have got their wind farm units of competency registered as part of a Diploma of Engineering Technology. The units can be viewed at the Training Support Network website , if you are happy to leave a few details and download the curriculum. There is a bit of a trick. It doesn’t seem to allow you to download the curriculum, but you can access it by clicking on ‘view’ when you get that opportunity. It is just the same as downloading it really, because you can save it when you view it, so this is the way to go.
There are five units, with the focus on working safely on wind farms, working safely in wind turbines, servicing wind turbines, and accessing data through monitoring systems. The units are pretty simple, and have essentially been constructed by taking the competencies that most companies that have service workforces would train their staff too (for example First Aid, Work Safely at Heights, Service Fire Extinguishers) and sort of sticking them together.
So for those of you familiar with the Australian system, that means taking all the elements from the provide first aid unit, re-writing them with references to the wind industry and turning them into a set of performance criteria as part of a competency unit that also includes re-written elements from one or two other relevant competencies such as respond to workplace emergencies, and service fire extinguishers.
I was consulted at the end of the process, and they are not too bad, considering they were put together from previously existing competencies rather than written from observation or direct research.
Box Hill tell me they are now working on developing training resources in support of the units, particularly online learning modules. I am not sure of the sense of this, as I am not at present a believer in the value of online training for turbine technicians, but it is clearly what they have been able to get funding for, so we will get these resources, whether they are useful for us or not. It really becomes up to the industry a bit as to how much they would want to engage in the development of these materials, but I can’t see the industry offering much at this point. We’ll see, I’ll talk to them when they call.
What is a bit disappointing is that EEOZ don’t seem to have made any progress on their units. It is a shame if the momentum is lost there.
And I haven’t heard from Siegfried for a while either, either on the qualifications stuff, or just on delivering some training through the Danish Wind Power Academy, which I was kind of hopeful he would get off the ground (the training that is).
These views are those of the author only – not those of Suzlon Energy Australia
