Certified wind training providers are starting to open their doors again, according to a survey conducted by safety training standards body Global Wind Organisation (GWO).
Around six in 10 GWO-certified training providers expect to have reopened their doors by the end of this week, the survey of the network found.
The companies, which deliver standardised safety and technical training to GWO standards, are proceeding with “extreme caution” and have made careful adaptations to minimise the risk of exposure for their course participants, instructors, and staff, said GWO.
The survey found that globally training providers expected to deliver 59% of the number of courses in May 2020, compared to the same period last year.
The number is expected to rise to 89% in June and 91% in July.
GWO chairman and Vestas HSE chief specialist Paul Robbins said: “This survey gives a snapshot of what training providers tell us they expect during the next three months.
“The global number is encouraging for the industry which has urgent need of training for its workforce.”
GWO chief executive Jakob Lau Holst added: “Some training providers expect to be very busy for the next two to three months, meeting a backlog of training demand in a workplace where technicians must refresh their certificates every two years.
“Others expect a much reduced workload as demand is impacted by continuing challenges domestically.
“For these reasons, Spanish training providers who remain unable to open until at least the final week of May are expecting very limited training this month, while most Polish companies have remained open throughout the Pandemic and anticipate a busy period from now onwards.”
During the Covid-19 pandemic up to a thousand technicians each week saw their basic safety training certificates run out of validity with limited access for retraining, GWO found.
Lau Holst said: “24% of the usual number of courses took place globally in the weeks since most economies were locked down.
“For employers in the wind industry this presents a major safety risk for their workforce as skills like first aid tend to fade in the memory without refresher training.”
In April 2020 GWO deployed new digital versions of its training standards to meet the challenges of lock down and social distancing.