SCHOOLS FOR WIND

Wind-power industry seeks trained workforce
Marla Dickerson, March 1, 2009 (LA Times)

"Interest in green-collar jobs is surging among workers from struggling industries…Hard times have brought [construction workers withouit jobs] to a classroom in rural Kern County to learn a different trade. Tonight's lesson: how to avoid death and dismemberment.

"This is Wind Technology Boot Camp at Cerro Coso Community College, where eight weeks of study and $1,000 in tuition might lead to a job repairing mammoth wind turbines like the ones sprouting up across this region…The work requires smarts and stamina. It is potentially dangerous…"

From IowaPublicTelevision via YouTube

"As in previous recessions, this economic downturn is boosting enrollment at community colleges and vocational schools. Classrooms are swelling with workers… looking to change careers…[T]he difference this time is the surging interest in so-called green-collar jobs. President Obama wants to create 5 million of them over the next decade…

"Technical education for renewable-energy workers is scarce, particularly for the fast-growing wind industry. Only a handful of wind programs operate in community colleges. Cerro Coso filled the 15 slots in its boot camp within hours. The next course is already full…

…[T]he U.S. wind industry is clamoring for skilled technicians to maintain the 30,000 wind turbines already in the ground. The best workers combine the knowledge of a top-flight mechanic with the endurance of an alpine mountaineer…A typical 1.5-megawatt GE unit…sits about 30 stories above the ground at the hub, where its three 100-foot-long blades connect to the tower…Just behind the hub is the housing for the gearbox, drive train and other components…Reaching it means climbing rung by rung on a narrow steel ladder attached to the inside of the tower. An agile worker can do it in less than 10 minutes, several times a day…"

From tlondgren via YouTube

"Technicians must be hyper-vigilant in an occupation that combines dizzying heights, tight spaces, high-voltage electricity and spinning metal. Fatalities are rare but unspeakably gruesome…Teaching students to respect these beasts is the job of wind instructors…[P]rivate wind-training firm [Airstreams is] working with Cerro Coso to put on the eight-week boot camp…

Mesalands Community College in Tucumcari, N.M., launched its wind program last fall with 32 students. GE offered to hire every qualified graduate for three years…The school has since been flooded with hundreds of inquiries from across the country…It's much the same at Iowa Lakes Community College, where wind students have "two to three job offers each" by the time they complete the two-year program…Students are jumping at the few seats available now…"