CWL welcome work placement students from Ayrshire College - 19th April

For the second year running, Community Windpower (CWL) welcomed two students studying the City & Guilds Wind Turbine Technician Course at Ayrshire College thanks to the ‘Service Level Agreement’ signed by CWL and Ayrshire College in September 2014.

James Seymour and Billy Shearer started their work placement at our head office in Frodsham on 4^th April during their Easter holiday to avoid missing college lectures.

Whilst on the two week placement scheme at CWL, James and Billy spent half of their time working with the ‘Operations/Technical teams’ and the other half with the ‘Projects Team’. Their time spent working on both sides of company gave the students a valuable insight to how the company works as a whole. Their time at CWL also included a site visit to CWL’s Dalry Community Wind Farm, Millour Hill Community Wind Farm and its extension, all located in North Ayrshire.

Alan Duckworth, Technical Manager explained the placement scheme in further detail:

‘‘After an extremely competitive interview process, we are very happy to have James and Billy with us for the second student placement from Ayrshire College.

The placement allows each student to spend time in the Planning team and in the Technical team. On the Planning side, the programme involves scoping a new site, designing its layout and researching all of the potential planning constraints. The Technical programme allows the students to interact with our Operations team, working with SCADA data to produce operation reports and analysis.

They both settled in really well and got stuck into the various challenges that we set them.

Both students worked extremely hard and have demonstrated their willingness to learn. They might be the “keenest” students yet; arriving 3 hours earlier than we expected on the first day!

During the placement the students visited 2 of our operational sites, Dalry Community Wind Farm and Millour Hill Community Wind Farm, giving the students a chance to spend time up close to the turbines and to pick the brains of our Operations Manager, Owen Powys.

By attending this placement, the students gained real-life experience of how wind farms are developed and operated and are able to see the theory from their lecturers in a commercial context.”

Student Billy Shearer said: ‘‘During my 2 week placement at Community Windpower Ltd, I have gained an invaluable amount of renewable industry experience. I feel like I have learnt an amazing amount in only 2 weeks, all of which I am sure will benefit me greatly in my future career within the Renewables industry. I cannot thank Community Windpower enough for giving me this amazing experience.’’

Student James Seymour said: ‘‘My placement at Community Windpower has been really enjoyable and beneficial for me. It was interesting to see how much information and data was collected and how this is used to keep each wind farm running at optimal efficiency. Also, the number of different constraints and considerations that have to be taken in to account when planning a wind farm was more than I had anticipated.’’

Jim Armstrong Lecturer in Engineering at Ayrshire College said “We consider our partnership with Community Windpower Ltd to be a valuable part of our City & Guilds Wind Turbine Technician course. There was a rigorous selection process for the placement and the competition was fierce to win this coveted work experience opportunity. Feedback from the students has been excellent. The exposure to the wind farm planning and operations teams has really enhanced their learning and will help them when they go on to seek employment within the wind turbine industry. We at Ayrshire College look forward to continuing and developing our partnership with Community Windpower Ltd.”

Both Community Windpower Ltd and Ayrshire College are committed to ensuring the student placement schemes continue to evolve and continue to provide students with a genuine ‘work experience’ that they can detail on their CV’s and hopefully aid future career decisions and employment.

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