Castrol Wind Academy aims to plug renewables skills gap

The Student Engineer

Lubricants manufacturer Castrol is launching a new Wind Academy in an effort to address the skills gap in the fast-growing wind energy sector.

CASTROL

According to the company, almost 80 per cent of stakeholders in the industry are finding suitably trained staff either ‘difficult’ or ‘very difficult’. The rapid growth of the wind industry means there is a growing skills gap, with the need for technicians and site managers in wind operations set to triple in the next three to four years.

“Operations technicians and site managers are at the heart of the wind energy industry, “said S Ramchander, chief marketing officer and global VP of Marketing at Castrol & BP Lubricants. “It is important that they are up-skilled and trained to implement best practice operations on site as conditions in the market are intensified over the coming years.

“The Castrol Wind Academy has been launched in response to the core challenges being faced in the industry and to directly address wind energy’s skills shortage. The Academy aims to empower operations teams to effectively support the growth of the industry through education, certification and best practice.”

Aimed at technicians with five years’ experience or less, the Academy is made up of online programmes, seminars, webinars and face to face training sessions. The course consists of three stages, the first of which is an online training course to educate technicians on Wind O&M basics, from gearbox and drive train technologies to predictive maintenance. The second stage sees advanced topics taught via a virtual class, while the third features an in-person training session on site.

Stage 1 and 2 can be completed at a time that suits the technician, to ensure a convenient learning experience. On completion of the course, technicians will be awarded a certification by the Castrol Wind Academy.

“The Castrol Wind Academy pilot course was very successful and, building on a collaborative development process, we are now looking forward to welcoming our first intake of technician teams into the Academy course,” said Charudatta Joshi, global marketing offer development manager at Castrol Lubricants.

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