Wind Turbine Engineers Head Out to Field

TEN aspiring young engineers are en route to completing RWE and Wales’ 1st Wind Turbine Apprenticeship after graduating from Coleg Llandrillo’s purpose built Wind Turbine Training Centre this week.

To mark the occasion, VIP guest Osprey scrum half and Wales international rugby star Rhys Webb presented certificates to the apprentices, who completed their academic studies before heading out for a final year’s training in the field.

A ceremony to mark the end of their full time academic studies at Coleg Llandrillo was held at the college and attended by family and friends, in the shadow of RWE Innogy UK’s flagship Gwynt y Môr Offshore Wind Farm – where half of the intake will complete their final year.

The course is the first wind turbine apprenticeship in Wales, and was designed by RWE Innogy UK, in partnership with Grwp Llandrillo Menai, North Wales, and EU Skills and the National Skills Academy for Power . The framework for the apprenticeship scheme was developed by Energy and Utility Skills Group.

RWE Innogy UK’s Chris Griffiths who has lead the development of the scheme for the company said: “The standard set by this very first intake of apprentices has been tremendous – they’ve worked exceptionally hard, achieved a great deal and proved to be amazing advocates for wind turbine engineering.

“The skills from this programme are specific to the sector, and are also highly transferrable, making our apprentices very highly sought after, and qualified. It’s a tremendous scheme that’s directly linked to the building and operating of wind farms in Wales.”

The apprentices all received an Apprenticeship Framework Certificate (a group of qualifications including a BTEC subsidiary diploma in engineering; NVQ 2 in Performing Engineering Operations; City & Guilds level 3 diploma in Electrical Power Engineering – Wind Turbine Maintenance). They now go on to complete the final year of their apprenticeship onsite, towards an NVQ 3 in Wind Turbine Operations and Maintenance.