Escalating at speed with ambitious targets, the offshore wind industry needs highly-skilled people, fast. But is haste to the prize sacrificing competency and quality in a high-risk, largely unregulated industry?
It must never take a disaster for an industry to impose quality standards and regulate itself.
But offshore wind risks heading into a danger zone as its huge requirements threaten to create a workforce of under-skilled people, warns a training provider on a mission to drive up quality standards across the industry.
Operators and developers need assurance that the technicians maintaining and carrying out statutory inspections on their turbines will deliver consistent gold-standard competence and safety awareness when they award contracts.
But some training courses and certifications rang alarm bells for Great Yarmouth-based Kieron Ford, who spotted that the immature industry, growing at pace, could be setting itself up for a fall.
Haphazard certifications, candidates awarded for turning up and being in the room with no testing experience – some training felt more like tick-box exercises than genuine upskilling, says Kieron, business growth director at technical services provider Stowen.
He feared the gap in standards was widening, and urgently needed plugging and standards improved across the board.
“When you see people judged competent to change out critical parts on a turbine without being tested, it raises big questions,” Kieron says.
Driven to upskill Stowen’s workforce to a higher level for its clients, he set about creating the first industry benchmark certification that Stowen’s sister specialist training company, Hexis, would deliver for its team.
It took 18 months to develop with the UK’s leading operators and became a safety and standards trailblazer to make the industry safer and better at every level through a consistent quality assurance for statutory inspection.
His idea led to a rigorous 10-day statutory inspection qualification, developed with a steering group including the developers, and accredited by the ECITB (Engineering Construction Industry Training Board).
The four-module course is the first in the industry to benchmark training, addressing competency, assurances, risk assessment and mitigation. Kieron hopes it will become mandatory across the industry.
Logbook evidence is a heavy requirement throughout, with intensive theory and practical exams at the end of each module.
“It is not an easy ride,” says Kieron. Successful candidates are qualified to carry out inspections to a higher level on multiple turbine OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers).
“I decided to buy a crane and a lift and train our own workforce. I then started talking to the ECITB, which had identified gaps and wanted to develop it together.
“We went to developers ScottishPower Renewables, Equinor, RWE, Vattenfall, SSE and other service companies such as Petrofac, Applus and Worley. The cohort consisted of health, safety and technical positions within the industry.
“Now, developers can have comfort that anyone who comes on their asset to do inspection has a high level of competency. If a third party sent them out, they know that the contractor has skills of a certain level that have been certified and recorded.”
Hexis has been the lone provider for more than a year. Now, two more training companies are keen to deliver the course, and two developers are teaching it in-house for all their inspection technicians.
“It’s not that people out there are underqualified, we are saying we don’t know,” says Kieron. “There’s been no benchmark until now.
“The offshore wind industry needs standards. Oil and gas took so many years to bring in standards and the accident rate offshore tumbled when it did.
“The wind industry is seen as visionary, yet there are no standards. For a developing industry, it is easier to achieve that now than when it is bigger and more mature.”
The growth and the amount of asset inspection is a huge requirement for developers, he says.
“There is a lot of work out there and many companies keen to be part of it. Without regulation there comes huge risks. If a company comes to an operator with all its inspectors accredited to an ECITB level, it is a great risk mitigation and assurance for that operator.
“If you were a crane driver in the building industry, no company would let you on site without an ECITB certification. We need the same standards and checks.
“From a Hexis perspective, we are building a business model. Hexis is looking at the gaps in training that need filling. To get the volume of people you need through, you would need multiple providers.”
There is no shortage of people getting GWO (Global Wind Organisation) certified, but there is a shortage of people who are trained, skilled and experienced, he says.
GWO training gains a technician a seat on the boat, but offers them no skills once they are out there.
“The key is a pathway from GWO to higher skills,” Kieron says.
The UK industry is also at risk of a drain of skilled workers from the UK to international projects, and the renewables energy industry could rue the day it didn’t introduce mandatory standards, says Kieron.
“Projects in the US and Taiwan are already underway, and people are leaving the UK now to take up roles overseas.”
Kieron believes competition between course providers would drive standards even higher if the certification was made mandatory.
“Multiple providers would lead to developers looking for who is doing it best, which can only benefit the industry,” he says. “We deliver the course; we don’t own it. The idea was formed here.
“If it isn’t made mandatory, you are in a very dangerous area – an area with huge requirements and under-skilled people.
“People might look at it as making it more difficult to upskill, but it is the reverse. It means you can’t get 20 people out tomorrow, but it will improve the entire industry. Now, Stowen can assure our clients that our people are trained in an accredited system that is recognised.”
Veterans pioneer new training pathway
Armed forces leavers George Reeve and Niall Clayton are the first veterans to join Stowen on a four-week intensive training programme before stepping straight into offshore jobs.
It’s a model that Kieron Ford wants to develop for military-leavers as Stowen steps up its nationwide recruitment drive to swell its 60-strong clean energy team to meet its expanding work around the UK.
“People leaving the forces bring the skills, attitude and work ethic the offshore wind industry needs,” says Kieron. “We are laying them a clear pathway of training and a route into a new career. They will step into real employment, provided they pass all the GWO and ECITB training delivered by Hexis at East Coast College.”
George, who was a Royal Navy aircraft technician and supervisor, and Niall, who was a military electrician in the Royal Engineers, are both 25. They view offshore wind as a natural transition for their electrical skills to an exciting and challenging industry offering multiple opportunities for progression, diversification and travel for decades ahead.
George, from Grimsby, discovered the job through the Career Transition Partnership (CTP), which delivers resettlement support for Armed Forces leavers into civilian careers.
He joined the Royal Navy at 18 and qualified as an aircraft technician maintenance supervisor during his seven years’ service, working on Wildcat HMA helicopters used for maritime security, on aircraft carriers and frigates in the Middle East, United States and the base at Yeovil, Somerset.
“I took promotion and then decided I wanted to do something different,” says George. “Offshore wind offers a more varied career and learning something new in a growth industry, with lots of different avenues I could take in the future.
“I wasn’t sure of what I wanted to do when I signed up, but wanted something exciting and a bit different. Being in the forces builds your confidence and leadership skills among other skills. I’m used to being at sea, so offshore wind fits.”
Niall, from Blackpool, signed up for the Royal Engineers at 17 and left two years ago to work for Open Reach.
“I wanted to move on to something that offered more opportunities,” he says. “It is important to keep things interesting in a job where you can see progression and new directions.”
He is keeping his friends and former colleagues updated with his progress on social media to spread the word about offshore wind careers.
“Being in the forces also teaches you to be a follower. You are trained to be involved and be ready to step up,” says Niall.
Stowen has just won its first renewables contract in Scotland on the Beatrice offshore wind farm, and has opened offices in Aberdeen and Inverness.
Holding framework agreements with most major developers, including Orsted, SSE, Equinor, RWE and major OEMs and tier one contractors, has provided a platform to assist the industry in recognising positive improvement via the group approach, with Hexis and Stowen working in tandem, Kieron says.
“We are pushing out geographically for new people because our work is spreading wider around the UK into Scotland, so having technicians living near wind farms makes environmental and logistical sense.
“We aren’t looking for people with specific qualifications. We can take on young people straight out of school or college without a specialist qualification and put them through Hexis training to reach a level of competency.”
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