Show notes
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.
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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,