With this job role, experience in wind isn’t critical although experience in project management will be. There are a number of qualifications you could get to help you secure a position and these will be discussed later. The role of a project manager is varied and can be highly pressured. Tasks range from providing technical support, preparing diagrams and layouts, reviewing proposals and managing costs. Furthermore you will be required to supervise the work of contractors and provide status reports to project teams and the owners of the wind farm.
This position will more than likely require a significant amount of travel. Although there will be times when you will be based in an office, you will spend much of your time at site ensuring that work is being completed on time and to a satisfactory standard. There’s a number of levels that allow you to rise through the ranks as a project manager with senior project managers and directors earning very high salaries.
Courses and Training
Practical experience and proven ability to deliver projects on time and on budget is critical to rise to the upper levels of this job role. Training to understand the principals of project management is also a necessity with project managers often using programs like Prince2 to deliver projects.
Meanwhile there could be the necessity to travel offshore, in which case it will be a requirement to carry the basic wind training as almost all the work in this sector is completed offshore. These certificates must be qualified by RenewableUK (RUK) and / or the Global Wind Organisation (GWO). The basic training is made up of:
- Sea Survival
- Fire Awareness
- First Aid
- Working at Height
- Manual Handling
Plus of course there is the specific training in the trade you are doing which we discussed earlier. It would be advisable to reach out to some companies and specific job roles to work out what training and qualifications you might need.
