Governance For Training Quality

Jesper Bagge Hansen, Chair of GWO Audit & Compliance Committee, Head of QHSE Assurance & QHSE Enterprise Risk in Orsted 

We asked Jesper Bagge Hansen to share his thoughts on last year

What were the audit & compliance committee’s priorities for 2021?

The governance of the GWO’s compliance to internal code of conduct as well as best practices are vital for GWO’s success. A key priority of the committee is supporting the assurance of the standards. While 2021 did include some compliance issues with both training providers and certifiers, the committee used these cases as reference for establishing administrative practice for processing complaints and nonconformities. 

In addition it’s been the GWO’s Audit and Compliance Committees continuing priority to maintain and further the governance aspects behind the delivery of high quality safety training. Delivering important changes in relationships within our training community via the two Requirement documents, their related auditor qualification standards and training and were priorities in 2021.

Which GWO programme stood out for you and why in 2021?

During the Spring-Summer GWO rolled out the WINDA 3.2 update which streamlined how training providers, auditors and certification bodies interact with each other and with GWO. These provisions were defined in new versions Requirements for Training Providers & Requirement for Certification Bodies launched this year. We were clear we needed to offer benefits all round, such as potential for lower certification costs training providers, while clearly creating a stronger system of mutually beneficial exchanges.

What’s next for your committee? 

To support the strategy and ensure GWO’s remains relevant and competitive a high focus must be kept on how best to align safety training competencies of workers transitioning into the wind industry and finding further ways to support consistently high level of training quality while rapidly growing its availability.