In Oil & Gas personnel are often transferred by helicopter, for the wind turbine industry people are moved in vessels.
These carry around a dozen people and will drop the wind turbine technicians at each wind turbine for routine and reactive maintenance. They are also used during the construction of wind farms with very large vessels used to lift and move the different elements of the wind turbine into place.
Experience in the marine industry would be beneficial here as the boats need to be placed very precisely and steadily whilst personnel are embarking and disembarking.
Courses and Training
There will be a number of mandatory courses to complete, even if you are already in the marine sector. All seafarers must ensure they have valid STCW certificates and a number of jobs may also require the basic wind training too.
The basic wind training must be approved 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
It would be worthwhile looking at a number of job roles to see what the common requirements are. There may be additional specific training as we discussed earlier. So it would be advisable to reach out to some companies and specific job roles to work out what training and qualifications you might need.
