Within the over 450 GWO certified training providers around the world, a small proportion, approximately seven percent, are controlled or operated by GWO member companies. This adds to the diversity of training provision and offers benefits to the wider community. SGRE’s Jacob Frederiksen explains why Siemens Gamesa retain GWO training certification.
The vast majority of GWO training we undertake is carried out by outside providers, but we still find it efficient to have capacity in-house.
For us it’s about three things.
1. Bundling skills and safety training together in-house means greater efficiencies; for example when compared to multiple shorter courses. This plays out in terms of easier staff planning and fewer miles travelled.
2. The ability to train in-house also allows us to better evaluate and interpret GWO standards and guidance, which can be important context in our external training purchasing decision making and internal course evaluation.
3. In-house competency can also assist GWO in developing training resources in new markets which at the same time support our own business growth.
From a governance perspective GWO’s treatment of member operated training providers is exactly the same as independent providers. Søren Gøtzsche, GWO Head of Operations and Compliance explains:
“We’re member neutral in the way we expect all training providers to comply with our Code of Conduct, requirements documents and how they apply our training standards. In the very rare occasions where an individual member owned training provider is referred to our complaints and incidents processes the procedures and principles are almost identical for all providers. The only exception is when GWO committees consider member cases related committee members are asked to absent themselves and do not take part in decision making.”
GWO asked member company, Nordex why it decided to open the GWO certified Nordex Global Academy in Hamburg, Germany?
As a globally acting company, Nordex is faced with different framework conditions in many countries all over the globe, especially regarding national safety regulations. In this challenging situation, our top priority is that our technicians can work safely at any time, no matter where they are located. For us safety should always be at the same high level. Work safety is firmly anchored in our corporate culture.
The Nordex Global Technical Academy (GTA) is now – next to the regional academy in Turkey / Izmir – a certified GWO Training Provider for our colleagues in Germany and ready to support Nordex facilities abroad with everything they need. Next to training possibilities in our facility in Hamburg, we are ready to provide support through on-site training, consultancy on the right choice of external training providers and support in certification of further local Nordex training facilities. With this step and further standardization, we want to save time for the important part of Nordex’s work, keeping the turbines running while still being safe at work.
Following this strategy and having the GWO as a strong partner at our side, we will make a huge step towards a higher quality of our training by having full control of the used equipment, using our own quality management system and being able to react flexibly to the requirements of our customers. All in all, GWO and the standards they created offers a lot of opportunities for us which we really appreciate and gladly accept as advantages for us.