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education AWEA Education Working Group Meeting Minutes AWEA Education Working Group Meeting Attendees: Terry Callahan, Suzlon Wind Energy Corporation Michelle Montague opened it up to explain the first 15 minutes would be a general review of the Working Group, since there were so many new faces in the room. Stephen Miner provided background of how group was formed, including being borne out of insufficient K-12 teaching materials that were not representative of what was truly happening in the wind energy industry. Recently AWEA board urged formalization of this group. Michelle Montague added how this group can grow to a committee level and, in time, can have more of a voice with the AWEA board. John Dunlop of AWEA serves as liaison between Education Working Group and O&M Committee and Safety Sub-committee. He reported on why the need for an O&M Committee and Safety group, as needs are growing exponentially to keep existing plants running. He will keep all groups apprised of opportunities to work together on overlapping issues. AWEA’s Vision 2030 report shows industry and the political goals to provide 20% of energy from wind by 2030. One major component of this is the supply chain challenges and in particular a skilled labor force. Forecast shows a need for 180,000 workers in this field by 2030, and the current educational infrastructure is not there to meet this demand. Moved onto wind energy companies providing their perspective on existing in-house training programs and general skills required by current workforce. Clipper Windpower was unable to be present, so Michelle Montague shared their information on various programs they have established with both technical/community colleges and universities, which includes everything from in-kind support to internships and providing Clipper wind experts to speak at schools. Terry Callahan of Suzlon discussed their company’s corporate learning center and the Level One technical training program they have established, with plans to quickly expand to Level Two and Three this winter. The focus is on building a more skilled labor in the areas of electronics, electrical and mechanical. Shaun Melander of Vestas discussed their experience recruiting at university job fairs along side of Intel, Nike and Adidas, and that wind has a real ‘wow’ factor. They are working with local universities for recruiting. They are encouraging degree programs and recruiting early. Vestas as a newer in-house training academy whereby they are taking carpenters, avionics technicians, roughnecks, etc., and training them. They get at least seven days of training before touching at turbine. Larry Jacobs of NRG saw the need differently. They have a need for people to install towers. They focus on fundamentals of wind power design 101, and provide a good overview of the industry. Locally, they are working with high schools, and doing lots of factory tours. NRG also has a speaking opportunity at University of Vermont, which helps to create interest. Joyce Papich of GSG Wind discussed the multi-use facility they are building in north-central Illinois proposed to host a technical training facility on 23 acres that is co-located with wind farms featuring various turbine suppliers. Receiving support from a couple of the turbine manufacturers and hopes to provide a 100-room hotel to help with visitors to facility and training programs. Mary Spruill with the NEED Project talked about their group providing K-12 curriculum in the wind industry for a couple decades. They are providing teacher workshops across the country, including a “sold out” event at WINDPOWER 2007. Will host again at WP08. They have four levels of hands-on kits that review turbine designs, blade designs, tower heights, economics, math, science and more. Representatives from the Universities group (Case van Dam) and Technical/Community Colleges group (Ray Elledge) reviewed the top three findings or goals from the last meeting, which were used to kick-off discussions for this meeting. At this time, the meeting broke up into groups. Three groups: 1) Universities, Graduate and PhD programs, 2) Technical and Community Colleges, 3) K-12. Each breakout group met for about 40 minutes and then presented it goals as such: K-12 Breakout Group Goals:
Technical/Community College Breakout Group Goals:
Universities Breakout Group
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