Vestas signals intent for all turbine workers to receive GWO training

Vestas has signaled its intention to adopt Global Wind Organisation (GWO) safety training standards for its 10,000 directly employed technicians as well as subcontractors working on wind turbines.

The company, which is a founder member of Global Wind Organisation, already ensures most of its own employees receive the industry standard training.

Today, it signed a new declaration at a group-wide meeting of health and safety leaders, which commits Vestas to use and incorporate GWO core safety training modules* into its internal safety training policies for all directly employed and subcontracted personnel who work on wind turbines**.

Paul Robbins, Head of Global HSE at Vestas, signed the commitment declaration on behalf of the company. He said: “There are currently 18 member companies of Global Wind Organisation and as signatories of the Association’s statutes each of us makes a pledge to use and recognise GWO safety training standards where appropriate. Vestas has chosen to go a step further and operationalize this commitment as a global health and safety team representing all regions of the group who agree that as training created by and for the wind industry, GWO should always be the standard we seek out.

Paul added that that by clarifying Vestas’ position, the availability of standardised, quality assured GWO training will accelerate.

“Every month, 1850 newly trained technicians join the workforce by completing a GWO training course somewhere in the world and there are 120,000 people with a valid GWO certificate today. However, by 2025, this number needs to approach 500,000 people if our industry is to meet its current pipeline of 492GW forecast installations on and offshore. To do that, we must ramp up the availability of GWO standard safety training, particularly in rapidly expanding wind power markets. I encourage any school, college, university, or company already delivering professional or industry training within reach of a potential wind installation to contact Global Wind Organisation now and get certified. This is a golden opportunity to train the next generation of wind turbine technicians so they can help reach our climate goals and return home safely each day.”

Jakob Lau Holst, Chief Executive Officer at GWO, adds: "I am very happy to have co signed this declaration with Vestas. All our members are committed to using and recognising GWO standards wherever they can and with a statement like today's I know the message will be heard loud and clear. This is the standard the industry wants its workers to be trained in. Please help us to reach out climate goals, safely."

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Photograph:

Back Row, L-R

Eddy Boe Nielsen, Head of Quality Management Global Quality Health, Safety and Environment (QHSE); Ike Anyanwu-Ebo, Global SME and Quality Chief Specialist / Global Head of Training and Competency Development; Miltos Spiridakis, Head of HSE Mediterranean; Tomasz Pokrywka Group Senior Vice President, QHSE; Moritz Zimmermann, Senior Specialist Global Transport Project Optimization; Marvin Talbert, Senior Director and Head of Region HSE Americas; Lars Odby, VPS HSE Functional Lead; Klaus Rønde, Head of Global Service HSE; Jesper Lykke Carstensen, Head of Global Construction HSE; Bo Kokholm Pedersen, Head of Global Manufacturing HSE; Thomas Konert, Head of Supplier QSE

FRONT ROW L-R

Aoki Miyasaki Torres, Head of Region HSE LATAM; Jakob Lau Holst, CEO Global Wind Organisation; Paul Robbins, Head of Global HSE; Lilian Harbak, Head of Global SME Environmental Performance

About Vestas

Vestas is the energy industry’s global partner on sustainable energy solutions. We design, manufacture, install, and service onshore and offshore wind turbines across the globe, and with more than 145 GW of wind turbines in 85 countries, we have installed more wind power than anyone else. Through our industry-leading smart data capabilities and unparalleled more than 123 GW of wind turbines under service, we use data to interpret, forecast, and exploit wind resources and deliver best-in-class wind power solutions. Together with our customers, Vestas’ more than 29,000 employees are bringing the world sustainable energy solutions to power a bright future.

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https://www.vestas.com/en/media/images.

We invite you to learn more about Vestas by visiting our website at www.vestas.com and following us on our social media channels:

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About GWO

GWO is a non-profit group of wind turbine owners and wind turbine manufacturers, committed to the creation and adoption of standardized safety training and emergency procedures.

Independent training providers deliver GWO-certified training to technicians and students worldwide. There are currently nine GWO training standards, containing a total of 24 modules. For more information on GWO standards, visit this page.

Training records are created when a GWO standard course is passed and completed by a person. These records are uploaded and stored in the GWO WINDA database.

GWO member companies

Acciona, Avangrid, CGN Wind Power, CRRC, Cubico Sustainable Energies, ENERCON, Envision, Equinor, GE Renewable Energy, Goldwind, Iberdrola, The Nordex Group, Ørsted, RWE Renewables, Shanghai Electric, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, SSE, Vattenfall and Vestas.

All photos and graphics copyright Global Wind Organisation

Editors' notes

*GWO Core Safety Modules = First Aid, Manual Handling, Fire Awareness, Working at Heights

** The full wording of the commitment statement is as follows:

Vestas will use and incorporate GWO Core Safety training modules in its internal safety training policies for all directly employed personnel who work on wind turbines (with some acceptable deviations). Vestas will have GWO Core Safety modules as a contractual requirement to subcontractors for all personnel who work on wind turbines on behalf of the members (with some acceptable deviations).

"Acceptable deviations" include situations where:

• Acceptable GWO Core Safety modules are not available in a country and other training has been applied instead

• Other training has been deemed more appropriate based on e.g., for legal reasons or limited access

• The Duty holder has internal exemptions based on job role e.g., one or more person(s) who are not trained with GWO safety modules enters a wind turbine under the duty of care of a member or visitors are escorted under care of trained personnel

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