Dare to be different Eloy Jauregui – GWO Chairman/Health and Safety Representative, Acciona Energia If you want to innovate, you have to start doing some things the same as everyone else. GWO creates training standards and we encourage the industry to think in this way. This is not always a popular message in a competitive industry and working together to stand- ardize is no easy task, especially when technology is moving quickly, and the pressure is on amidst a rapidly falling cost of energy. In fact, standards are sometimes viewed as contradictory to innovation. Some argue they reduce choice or lock us all into one way of operating. However, GWO members recognised their basic safety training programmes were either “comparable” or “virtually the same” as one another. They understood these activities were generic and could be standardized . This has creat- ed benefits up and down the wind energy supply chain. During its first six years, the Basic Safety Training Standard (BST) aligned the basic safety training of more than 67,000 wind turbine technicians. Today, GWO members spend fewer resources developing generic training programmes, which offer us little or no competitive advantage. Instead we can innovate as employers with our own learning development programmes, adding value to the professional lives of our technicians. We can also recognize the validity of a training certification framework that we trust be- cause we designed the standard ourselves. GWO standards reflect the safety risks we know our technicians face. We understand the types of unique injuries they can experience when working on a tur- bine, and we know why GWO standards mitigate those risks. The benefits for suppliers can be even more significant. Acting as they do for multiple customers, the very existence of one standard instead of a unique training for each owner or manufacturer means that contractors have substantially fewer individual requirements to meet. In this report, we are holding a mirror up to our own standards. Do they offer value for the industry? Do they keep technicians safe? What is in it for you?
Executive summary There are significant advantages to the wind energy industry from operating within a standardized basic safety-training framework.
Added together, GWO members agree they amount to a safer and more productive workforce.
In their role as primary contractors, GWO members are employers and legal duty holders for a global workforce.
GWO is an established global standard More than 67,000 technicians held a valid GWO certificate by Q3 2018.
This figure increased by 26% from approximately 53,000 at the end of 2017. GWO trained technicians now represent between 5-10% of the global workforce in wind energy 2 . During the first half of 2018, the number of GWO certifications from outside the European Union doubled to over 14,000 (16% of the global total).
GWO standards deliver five measurable benefits
Safety | 4/5 members agree GWO has raised safety training standards across the industry
1
Productivity | 2% greater potential workforce productivity as GWO technicians are available for up to 6 days more each year than staff trained outside the GWO framework agreement
2
Standardization | The global wind energy industry wants to standardise training. ¾ of GWO members have standardized 30% or more of their entry level training
3
Locally sourced training | Employers can choose from over 250 GWO certified training in almost 40 countries
4
Supply chain alignment and contract certainty | ‘No GWO, no contract’. The standard is a contractual expectation up and down the supply chain
5
2) International Renewable Energy Agency – 2018 total global Wind Energy Workforce 1.1m
4 | GWO Stakeholder Benefits
GWO Stakeholder Benefits | 5
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