Category: GWO training

Safety Technology USA news

As 2021 gets well underway it’s time for a news update.

2021 has been a super busy year so far despite some of the limitations we’re dealing with due to Covid-19. As ever safety of our attendees and staff is of utmost importance as we continue to support our vital industry.

New Course dates

We have a range of courses coming up over the next weeks:

Texas

March 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th

April 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th

Each week will offer both a full Basic Safety Training and Basic Safety Training Refresher.

Iowa

March 22nd

April 5th, 19th

Again a full Basic Safety Training and Basic Safety Training Refresher will be available on all weeks.

Join us at O&M in Texas

We’re excited to have secured our place at the AWEA O&M Safety conference 2021 in Round Rock, Texas. As we’ll be on our home turf in Texas we’re hoping that our entire crew will be joining us. It’ll be a great opportunity to meet instructors, our commercial team and check out new equipment. Head over to AWEA for more details, we hope to see you there.

More course availability

Through the second half of 2020, we used some of our Covid downtimes to bring additional trainers through our in-house program. What this means for our customers is more courses at more venues. In the coming months expect to see a weekly course in Texas for both Basic Safety Training and Refreshers and a minimum of 2 courses per month for both. We will also be adding GWO Advanced courses to our program and beginning to schedule Basic Technical Training as distancing restrictions allow.

Growing Partnerships

Working closely with strategic partners is central to Safety Technology’s global growth and this is no different in the USA. 2021 will bring a host of new announcements of partners delivering Safety Technology GWO accredited training courses. The first of which is with our partners in Kansas City, Pinnacle Career Institute. Currently, training Working at Height PCI will soon be delivering the full Basic Safety Training course from the accredited site in Kansas City. We’re excited to be developing these additional modules which will be available for in-house students and external companies looking for training.

If you’re looking for training, get in touch.

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November GWO Basic Safety Training and Refresher dates

November GWO Basic Safety Training and refresher dates are now confirmed.

We have now confirmed November GWO Basic Safety Training and Refresher dates for November. These courses will be taking place in Abilene Texas. Our November 23rd course is the first refresher we have run for a while due to the demand for full courses. There will be a maximum of 12 spots on this course with the next refresher likely taking place in January 2021.

All GWO safety training courses will follow our Covid protocol which covers social distancing during courses, use of PPE, candidate pre-screening and course modifications where appropriate to remove the need for attendee contact during training. We implemented this protocol at the start of the pandemic and it has served

Full GWO Basic Safety Training

5 days

Modules include

Fire Awareness (1/2 day)
First Aid (2 days)
Manual Handling (1/2 day)
Working at height (2 days)

Start dates

November 2nd

November 16th

GWO Basic Safety Training Refresher

3 days

Modules include

Fire Awareness (1/2 day)
First Aid (1 day)
Manual Handling (1/2 day)
Working at height (1 day)

Start dates

November 23rd

We already have a number of bookings for November and with limited training dates in December these represent some of the last opportunities to gain GWO certification before the new year. All courses operate on a first come first served basis, if you have any queries or require further information please reach out via the link below and one of our team will help you.

To book a course or request more info please get in touch with our team

GWO Basic Safety Training course dates

GWO Basic Safety Training course dates for October and November are out.

Join us in Abilene, Texas for a GWO Basic Safety Training course. Courses run over 5 days including modules; first aid, fire awareness, manual handling and working at height. The GWO Basic Safety Training course is a must have for technicians looking to get ahead in the wind energy market. Safety Technology USa train hundreds of technicians every year in the global GWO Basic Safety Ttaining standard. Safety Technology USa trainers are considered some of the most experienced trainers globally and we consistently get great feedback:

“I want to let you know that your instructors Brandon and Jerry were GREAT, they were very professional, I would highly recommend them, your course, and your company.”

The next GWO Basic Safety Training courses with availability take place on

October 26th
November 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th

Places are limited for all courses so we encourage you to speak to us about reserving a spot as soon as you know you need training.

Get in touch to book a course

Training GWO onsite

Training GWO onsite has been a real lifeline during lockdown.

Training GWO onsite over the last couple of months has meant we’ve been able to keep courses ticking over and also help out our customers, many of whom had technicians who would have otherwise not been able to work. At a global level it’s a key priority for STL to deliver flexible training solutions for our clients and this has certainly been put to the test recently. For some time STL have prioritised gaining accreditation to deliver onsite courses and this will soon be augmented with a blended course option mixing online with face to face training. STL are committed to offering customers solutions that work with their needs and training GWO onsite forms a key component of this. Onsite GWO courses run much the same as courses staged at our location in Texas and Iowa. The course format comprises the main onshore modules for GWO BAsic Safety Training and GWO BAsic Safety Training Refreshers. This includes the modules First Aid, Fire Awareness, Manual Handling and Working at Height.

Practicalities of training GWO onsite

The course curriculum follow is exactly the same and technicians have to demonstrate all the skills and knowledge required in each module. Where the course differs, and some would say is improved, is that the technicians train practical elements in the environment they will be working in. This means working at height is usually run on a turbine allowing for the most realistic training your ever likely to get. other course elements such as the first aid and fire are conducted in a classroom or suitable meeting room on the wind farm or close by.

Bringing the course to you

Your technicians and your turbines will already have PPE and safety systems installed. Our trainers are comfortable working with all the commercially available devices. We do however bring with us a small selection of kit in case anything is needed. We also travel with all the equipment needed for both First Aid and Fire Awareness. Having run 30+ onsite courses our logistics and well practised and getting equipment and our trainers to locations in even the remotest parts of the USA on time to ensure courses run smoothly.

What about the weather?

Given that training for working at heights is outdoors the weather can also be a factor. For this reason we keep the course programme flexible for the training week, fitting in the practical elements when the conditions allow. However, we will train to the weather conditions that technicians would be expected to work within. It adds to the realism of the course and let’s face it not everyday is going to be sunny and warm.

How do I book training GWO onsite?

Booking is simple, like all of our GWO training courses. Simply contact us and let us know how many technicians will be attending the course and where the course location is. Onsite training is delivered on a ratio of one instructor to four technicians and we can send up to three instructors for a course if required. Due to the logistics involved we ideally required 2-3 weeks notice to set-up an onsite training course, apart from this the rest is simple.

What about costs?

All of STL USA’s GWO courses are charged on a per technician basis, this is exactly the same onsite as it would be at one of our training centers. For onsite we do charge an additional fee for instructor travel and equipment logistics plus a small daily subsistence fee for instructors accommodation. However, this is nornally far cheaper than it would be to send a group of techs to a course at one of our sites, when you consider flights, hotels, car rental and daily expenses.

For those companies who have the facilities and capacity to run onsite it really is the perfect flexible training option.

To find out more and to book a course click the link below.

June GWO training course dates

Announcing the latest June GWO training course dates.

We super delighted to be announcing June GWO training course dates. It feels like we’ve been in lockdown for an age, although we’ve been keeping busy training onsite and at a backup center in Houston. But, as we start to emerge from our lockdowns it’s amazing to be able to announce our first GWO training course dates in June.

Courses will be:

GWO BST, Abilene Texas, starting June 22nd

GWO BST, Abilene Texas, starting June 29th

In order to ensure maximum safety for the course attendees, the working at height training will be conducted outdoors using our mobile rig, fire awareness will be outdoors and the remainder of the course will be indoors in a classroom setting with adequate social distancing.

We will be taking a range of safety measures to ensure that all surfaces are cleaned between use, masks, gloves, visors and other PPE will be available as well as hand sanitizer and wipes. In addition all technicians will be required to fill in a health questionnaire prior to starting the course.

All courses will include the following modules:

GWO Fire Awareness
GWO First Aid
GWO Manual Handling
GWO Working at Height

Booking a course is simple just get in touch via the button below

We’re back in business

We’re back in business. Training at our core locations will begin again in June.

It’s awesome to be back in business. The truth is we never really went away as we’ve been able to continue supporting customers with GWO training at their sites via our onsite training services. But, getting back into our main training facilities will be a welcome change and we look forward to seeing techs on our courses.

As part of our reopening strategy we will be adhering to strict social distancing. This includes capping courses to no more than 6 attendees, ensuring desks are 6 feet apart in classrooms, wearing gloves and masks for practical exercises.

Suffice to say we take the safety measures seriously and will ensure that we have adequate supplies of PPE available at all times. Where special requirements are needed we will work with our customers to ensure, where possible, that these are implemented.

If you’d like to talk about how we can support your GWO training and you’d like more information get in touch.

The state of wind energy in lockdown.

With many of us in wind energy in lockdown this weeks post speculates on where we’re heading.

So what is the state of wind energy in lockdown? So let’s get this out of the way the wind is still blowing, turbines are still turning and I have to say that most people I’m speaking with are continuing to operate, albeit under strict distancing guidelines. Of course a lot of us are classed as essential workers so we’ve had to adapt quickly to this situation. For STL USA in particular this has meant moving courses to an onsite format where we can but of course not every customer has access to a turbine or tower to conduct a training course.

On this note I’d like to give a major shout out to the guys at Cotech who’ve let us use their training facility in Houston whilst ours is shut.

The GWO have played their part by quickly developing a new partial online course for Basic Safety training refreshers. This course allows for 100% delivery online over the space of a few days via a virtual classroom format. The course is built around interaction and requires both instructors and technicians to demonstrate a series of actions within the curriculum as well as theory elements to gain the 6 month interim accreditation.

This is an exciting development for STL USA as we’ve been eagerly awaiting the launch of an online, blended course format to broaden our course offering across the USA. We’ve also spent some of our lockdown time accelerating our plans to bring the GWO ART course to the USA. This is something we’re particularly keen to have sit alongside our standard GWO safety training courses.

Our wider outlook for wind is still very positive despite the current lockdown. Wind energy is proving itself to be a cost effective source of energy generation and with numerous new developments in the pipeline including the major offshore farms we still believe well end 2020 in an upbeat mood.

The second half of the year will see us looking further afield from our traditional mid-West base in the “wind corridor”. The next stage of our growth will be focussed on the offshore market, our longer term goal is to begin delivering GWO Sea Survival from a strategically located training center by the end of 2020. This is about 4-6 months behind our initial plan but hey Covid-19 came along so we hope you’ll forgive us.

All that’s left for us to do is say a big thank you to all our people who have worked tirelessly during this difficult time, for our clients patience and to the wider wind community for hanging in there.

If you’d like to talk about how we can support you GWO training get in touch.

Beat the GWO refresher backlog

You can beat the GWO refresher backlog with STL USA.

There’s a big GWO refresher backlog building right now. To tackle this we are building a roster of technicians who require GWO refresher training so we can manage course places and allocate these on the basis of those closest to their expiry dates.

Adding your technicians to the roster is very easy.

Add you contact details
Add your technicians and their certification expiry dates
We will contact you to allocate a training place before certs lapse

You can join the roster here:

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March news round up

Welcome to the March news round up.

I promised myself i would write this news round up without mentioning the C-word, but I don’t think that’s going to be possible. Covid-19 has dominated March and looks set to have an impact on the wind sector for the next few months. We are lucky as a business to be able to continue, albeit on a reduced basis, training during this crisis. We’ve taken significant steps to mitigate risks for our trainers and course attendees during the outbreak. This has meant the closure of our training facilities and a move to 100% onsite training until we feel we it is 100% safe to reopen the centers.

March started so differently

At the very start of March we were packing up after attending the AWEA O&M conference in San Diego. It was a great conference, we met up with clients and connected with new potential clients across the week. The weather was great and we had a small opportunity to enjoy some of the Southern California coastline. What a difference 30 days make! We moved quickly to ensure we could react to our client needs but most importantly to ensure the safety of our people and our attendees.

Moving onsite

The big story of the last 30 days has been our transition to 100% GWO onsite training. We regularly run training courses for customers at their wind farms but we’ve never had to run 100% of our courses in this fashion. The safety advantages are obvious, less interaction between people and less travel for course attendees. As training centers have closed across the country demand has grown exponentially. A big thank you to all the STL USA team for stepping up as in many cases we’ve been the last resort for clients.

Looking ahead

One thing is for certain this outbreak won’t last forever. When we come out of the back of this there will be a number of challenges that we will have to cover. Firstly there’s going to be a major backlog of refresher training that will need to be completed, second it’s likely there will be a rush of new hires. These will likely have been postponed during the lockdown. It’s going to mean a lot of training is required in a short space of time. To tackle this we’re working with all our customers to create a schedule for refreshers starting in May, we’re committed to running these back to back for as long as required so nobody’s certs lapse. It’s important we do this as lapsed certs require the tech to complete a full training course, keeping them out of the field for a full 5 days. We are working on a way for you to log your techs and their expiry dates into a schedule so we can then provide you training options, more to follow…

Stay Safe Everyone.

In the meantime if you want to add technicians to our refresher schedule you can get in touch below.

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GWO training during the Covid-19 (coronavirus) outbreak

GWO training during the Covid-19 outbreak will be available as two options.

During the outbreak it’s vital that we continue to provide safety services to our clients in the renewable energy sector. STL USA are taking every step to ensure GWO safety training is conducted in a clean and secure environment that minimises the risk to our attendees and employees. We are continuing to offer two training options for wind technicians.

Update March 26th, 2020.

All training courses will be restricted to a maximum of 6 people, 5 trainees and 1 trainer.

Onsite training

STL USA are the only company accredited by the GWO to offer GWO onsite training in the USA. This means we can attend a customer site to perform the full GWO Basic Safety Training course. This requires the use of a turbine and a facility that can double as a classroom for a maximum of 10 people. Onsite training requires a ratio of 1 instructor to 4 technicians and during this time we are capping all courses at a max of 8 technicians plus 2 instructors. For a class of 4 the course will run as normal, for a class of 8 attendees will be split into 2 groups and the second group will run on a reverse schedule of the first to minimise contact.

We are able to service locations across North America however we will treat each enquiry on a case by case basis.

Training center

From March 31st our training centers are running a reduced timetable. Courses in Texas will start on April 20th and 27th for full GWO Basic Safety Training and in Iowa on April 27th. Courses may be cancelled or changed at short notice during this period we will endeavour to keep our customers informed of developments as we react to them in all cases.

Taking steps to stay safe

The safety of our customers and employees is always our primary concern. All steps in accordance with Federal Government and World Health Organisation guidelines have been implemented by STL USA. In addition modifications to GWO training courses have been applied which minimise the risks for everyone involved in a training course.

Anyone presenting with:

Flu like
Cough
Fever
Shortness of Breath

will not be allowed to join a training course and registration will be delayed until symptoms no longer exist and the person is medically passed fit to train.

In specific modules

During First Aid and Enhanced First Aid (including refresher) modules for when practicing CPR on a resuscitation mannequin. Training staff will continue to demonstrate correct CPR, however course participants (delegates) shall not be required to perform mouth-to-mouth on a mannequin. However, delegates must still practice establishing an airway and verbally confirming delivery and the correct number of rescue breaths (without contact between course participants mouth and the mannequin’s mouth), and otherwise complete the exercise as described.
During Working at Height initial and refresher training, all practical exercises will be performed using a rescue dummy as injured person (casualty), including the double evacuation and ladder rescues of a conscious person
During Advanced Rescue Training (Initial and Refresher), when performing practical rescue exercises where the course participants (delegates) are required to work in teams, these exercises will be carried out as single rescuer, making sure to cover planning of rescue in teams and teams communication during rescue.

The whole team at STL USA encourage you to stay safe during this difficult time.

If you would like to discuss an onsite or training center course contact us.

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