Following from our previous article on wind industry jobs, and some discussion of the parallels and differences with existing similar industries. In this post, we will consider the spread of wind industry jobs aimed at younger people across leading wind power countries. We will analyse the overall programme of apprenticeships at a country level and how this maps across to wind power. This review is by no means exhaustive, rather an indicative review of what is available. Noteworthy here, there are some excellent, albeit outdated literature reviews which benchmarked apprenticeships and wind apprentice programmes specifically. These can inform in further detail, specifically on the practical process of application.
In light of increased wind ambitions globally, this could offer a skilled technical, hands on operational, manufacturing career in many countries, depending on the individual's preferences. Moreover, once a candidate is 'time-served' - and has successfully completed their apprenticeship, they have the skills and hands-on experience which they can take anywhere. One individual with a managerial bent or team organisational skills may employ others and even take on apprentices themselves to sustain the industry and of course, grow their own business.
An apprentice at work at BAE Systems, a UK defence contractor recently awarded a tender to investigate and solve radar related defence shortcomings arising from offshore wind farms. Credit: BAE Systems via the Guardian
What parameters do I look for in an Apprenticeship?
Some good questions (not an exhaustive list) you may ask when considering an apprenticeship:
How long does it last? - A valid question. Depending on the We will not get into the detail of "X" apprenticeship lasts "Y" years as this is a very specific parameter relating to the field a candidate pursues. However, I will mention to give context typical lengths of apprenticeships in each country studied.
What are the payment terms? - The original apprenticeships of old were typically unpaid. Borrowing from ancient times - Apprenticeships were formally incorporated as articles of indenture (yes, that's right, similar to indentured servitude) around 1600, with informal arrangements going back before then. Nowadays, instead of having to pay for the opportunity to learn from a master, either by a lump sum or through instalments, an apprentice rather 'takes the hit' through a reduced salary relative to a minimum wage of the country, or a 'time served' worker in the industry.
Where will the training happen? - Seemingly innocuous question but it is critical to the relevance of your time as an apprentice. It may seem obvious but for those occupations with a heavy emphasis on industrial/ site work component will need to also gain experience by working on site. This can include - in the case of wind power apprentices, going to the fabrication shop, or the wind farm and working there, as well as training workshops serving as 'classrooms'. It is notable that a very high proportion of the time is spent in hands-on training, as much as 70%.
How do I find apprenticeships? - This can vary country to country, depending on the level of governmental support to market these schemes. In the UK, it has been a political hot potato to get more apprenticeships back on the table after previous calls for half of all young people to go to university.
Let us review the critical elements from above in the schemes available in some leading wind power capacity countries:
UK
In the UK, there is a central government page which directs candidates for apprenticeships and companies who may want to host an apprentice program. For transparency, there are monetary incentives for hosting apprentice programs in the UK. An employer can receive back 95% of the training costs of an apprentice if the employer contributes 5% of the cost of training - paid to the training provider. Furthermore, employers can receive a £2,000 - £3,000 'bounty' for taking on an apprentice, on top of the aforementioned government subsidy.
A cut from the UK Government page on apprenticeships. There is a searchable tool within the website which shows, by sector, a whole list of details about apprenticeships near the post code you provide (same as Zip Code in US). Credit: UK HM Government
The terms of an apprenticeship in the UK - If you're in the UK and undertaking an apprenticeship between 16 - 18 years, you can claim the Apprentice wage rate - £4.30 / hour (approx $ 6 USD, as of May 2021).
The same rate is applicable even to an apprentice starting their program at 21 years old. However, if the apprentice has completed their first year of the program and is over 19 years old - they are entitled to the national minimum wage - equivalent to £8.91 / hour (approx $ 12.3 USD).
The length of an apprenticeship can range from 1 to 6 years, depending on the subject matter, the level to which you are training, and previous experience in the field.
The level of the apprenticeship is also approximately equivalent to academic qualifications as follows, with the higher 6,7 levels equivalent to a bachelor's or master's degree respectively.
Germany
The government page for apprentices in Germany (from Germany and for overseas applicants in Germany) is very detailed up front, clearly giving the terms and details for apprentices.
In contrast to the UK Government offering, there are clear entries for Visa requirements on the apprenticeship pages, giving options and how to account for this as an apprenticeship candidate.
Additionally, Germany put itself forward as a partner market as part of a 2019 ERASMUS + , EU study to investigate as a precursor to harmonising wind training around the North Sea. Other countries in the study were:
- Belgium
- Ireland
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Denmark
All strong wind power countries. This study, co-funded by the EU, appraised the providers of tuition, comparing and contrasting the offer - core trainings - relating to equipment, science, and peripheral trainings - offshore safety certificates, etc. Furthermore, the analysis also accounted for the quality assurance on the education system, analysing the awarding body examinations, and the entry requirements on candidates to a wind training programme.
Perhaps most interesting was the clear citation of 'Unique Selling Points' of each country offer, collating the other valuable skills ordained aside from the core offer. These ranged from ' a sense of responsibility' - no doubt a powerful thing for a young person starting out, to ICT skills, knowledge of English language. For 5 of the 7 partner countries - Teamwork was also called out in this section as a key value add skill from their programme.
A parameter which I think highlighted some weakness in individual countries was an assessment of physical training facilities provided by the training entities in those countries. Some countries 'scored well' here with clear objective lists of facilities, equipment sets, dedicated classrooms, etc. However, bear in mind that this data is 2 years old, things may have changed. To redouble this point, it could also be that the on-the-job training involving practical work happens at 'live' facilities, thus dedicated training facilities may not appear for some countries.
This resource is an excellent starting point for aspiring apprentices in those countries listed above. It gives a clear route in, to start finding wind apprenticeships offered by government / national providers, and company-provided opportunities.
Focusing in on Germany - The apprenticeships there are typically 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 years long and have a combination of business training, typically 50-70% of their time. The classroom at a vocational school makes up the rest of the hours. Here we can draw a reassuring parallel with the UK and Netherlands in a requirement for heavy participation in the field, doing work. However this is in contrast to the UK as the Apprenticeship is much shorter than the UK 5-7 years for a technical post.
Netherlands
Apprenticeships in the Netherlands may initially appear to work a little differently to those in the UK and Germany: Apprenticeships in Holland are not a stand-alone school. Instead, to ensure that the law covering all Vocational and Educational Training (known as VET) for school leavers is aligned they were merged after 1996. In this way, the significant resources of VET (public and private) work together to ensure a fair outcome regardless of if a candidate takes an apprenticeship track or school-based track.
There is a further detail which highlights clear parallels between Netherlands with the UK apprenticeship schemes. This is because the newer 'Dual-track' apprenticeships confer, as of a required 'classroom' component as well as thorough hands-on work to ensure required competence on the tools. The importance of hands-on learning is seen more clearly here with a minimum work-based-learning time contribution of 60%, but on average, candidates typically completed 74% work-based-learning.
These apprenticeships also work slightly differently to a traditional academic 'school year' system - in that there is a curriculum, a specific scope of learning. This learning is not tied to a fixed time-service period so if a candidate finishes earlier, and can demonstrate capability and completion of the elements ahead of the time (say a 5 year period), they can exit the program.
Within this context, Wind Power training is typically conducted by 2 specific schools - ROC Scalda and ROC Nooderpoort both in the South Netherlands and close to a port, further emphasising the clear link between the offer and relevant experience in Wind.
There has been some concern that this VET teaching method - while seemingly robust with benefits to society since its inception, there is concern that changing demographics and emphasis on academic studies have weakened support for the practical-classroom mutual reinforcement in the learning.
United States
The US has wind capacity and local industry to those sites where wind is deployed. There will be a need to further develop the training capacity and throughput, breadth of wind apprenticeship options. This will help the country meet the presidential ambitions of building out (and inherent is all the trappings of a wind farm - regular maintenance, etc).
Where will the new US wind farms go?
To help us understand where the jobs, wind hubs will typically be, we can extrapolate from the existing wind infrastructure. In the same way that new UK and German wind farms typically lie adjacent to existing farms, so too, it would be sensible to array new assets alongside existing ones. This minimises travel distances between assets for a multi-client service company (which could typically serve multiple wind farm operator customers). This mirrors the same way that a gas station pump maintenance company will typically serve multiple 'brands' which use the same pump infrastructure.
Where are the existing wind farms?
There are some excellent maps out there, regarding wind farms. The list below, cut from Wikipedia shows the top 10 largest wind farms at the time of writing, May 2021.
As a result, it could be reasonable to consider that more wind farms can be constructed adjacent to these ones - these top states being Texas, California, Oregon, Colorado and Indiana.
Where are the best U.S. wind assets?
This is a slightly different question to above because it concerns the winds themselves, where they blow consistently, at a strength sufficient to make it worthwhile to invest in wind infrastructure. This also looks at a sub-set of the data regarding global wind currents. The below map highlights in darker blue areas offshore to the South, East and West of the US mainland, where the offshore wind is strongest and most consistent. This also reflects the current predominance of the regions mentioned above in the U.S. wind industry.
Take up of Apprenticeships by Country
The below data I have aggregated to give some scale of the flow of school leavers into apprenticeships. I will follow with another article to delve into this in greater detail - the conversion of school leavers into wind industry folks. For now, these numbers help us get a sense of the scale and influence of apprenticeships in countries. This should highlight how important a future-thinking design of such curricula, alongside commitment to breaking into new innovation areas for young people.
UK - As of 2019/20, there were 719,000 people in an apprenticeship in England. Of these, 322,500 new apprenticeships started. 146,900 apprenticeships completed as of year end 2020/ 2021. As a proportion of total school leavers (approximately 566,000 in the year 2019/2020).
Considering 146,900 / 566,000 = 26 %
This is the proportion of young people successfully completed an apprenticeship in 2020/ 2021. There is attrition, some natural wastage between starting and completing an apprenticeship programme. Not all candidates stay the course.
Indeed building on that point, young people not in employment, education or training ( NEETS) are a real concern. Comparing to official government figures: this proportion of apprentices is aligned. However the 2020/2021 completion figure is 32,000 lower than the previous year - owing to Covid-19 disruption to hands-on training and the ability for trades to even work at all. This implies that a 'normal' year of school leavers precipitates around 31 % apprentices. Credit: Explore Education Statistics, Commons Library, gov.uk, aspire training teaching.
Germany - As of 2001 - albeit outdated data, 2/3 of school leavers began an apprenticeship, of which 4/5ths of those candidates completed their programme successfully. All told, this brings to just over half of German young people had completed an apprenticeship. This is much higher than the UK. Remember there over 50% of young people had instead gone down a formally academic route in line with government planning. This puts German students in a prime position for real world manufacturing and physical infrastructure prowess relative to United Kingdom theory-heavy students. This is reflected in the high take up of candidates in real companies after completion of training.
You can reach me on Twitter @Ronnie_Writes
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