VP North America Safety Technology USA Abilene, Texas
Presentation Description: Employers will be hiring hundreds of wind technician for construction and operations, and community colleges are critical to build the necessary workforce. But community colleges cannot do this alone; they need input from industry partners and standardized training to deliver what the industry needs. This panel discussion will expore how companies looking to hire technicians can partner with community colleges and other GWO training providers to implement wind industry standardized training to develop the needed skills in the next generation workforce prior to hiring. These partnerships also have the added benefit of availing the colleges to access several means of state and federal grant funding for workforce development, and the addition of an industry recognizzed training program, like, GWO, adds credence to teh grant proposal. Additional panelists will be identified. Panelists will be drawn from the following organization types: 1) Commmunity College representative experienced in developing industry training partnerships (person TBD) 2) GWO training provider that has implemented training at Community Colleges under partnerships (person named in application) 3) Wind Tech Employer that has developed training programs with Community Colleges for hiring techs (person selected, pending confirmation)
Methodology: Panel discussion. The moderator will ask prepared questions to each panelist. Open for audience questions.
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion, participants will be able to explain why industry partnerships are critical for meeting workforce development needs as they hear the experiences of community colleges, knowledgeable GWO training providers, and industry partners that have worked together to build wind technician training programs.
Upon completion, participants will be able to recognize the benefits of industry partnerships when submitting grant proposals to state or federal agencies. Panelists will describe how to access state & federal grant funding for developing training programs.
Upon completion, participants will be able to describe how GWO's industry standardized trading and the GWO Wind Technician Entry Level Framework provides a vehicle to deliver training packages to meet the industry needs.
