At Northumberland College we are leading the way in wind technician training, having launched the first department of its kind in the UK to specialise in wind energy courses.

Our practical training courses have been developed in partnership with companies in the industry to ensure they equip the future workforce with the skills and knowledge needed to work on both on-shore and off-shore wind farms.

The renewables department, based at our Kirkley Hall campus, has excellent purpose built workshops and classroom facilities and a number of wind turbines and associated equipment, both large and small.

We have a number of domestic turbines, one of which feeds energy direct to the grid, saving the college in excess of £2,000 per year. Another is used as a demonstration model for off grid situations.

Two larger turbines (Nacelles), which were capable of generating 250kw and 300kw, have been dismantled and stripped down and are housed in the workshop for training purposes.

We can also boast a state of the art climbing tower for specific working and rescue at height training, with passenger lifts and baskets.

European partnerships
Over several years Northumberland College has worked closely with European training institutes including BZEE in Germany in the development of three European wind training projects namely: Power, Windskill and more recently Power Cluster.

www.windskill.eu
www.power-cluster.net
www.bzee.de

Our partner institutes include universities such as TU Delft in Holland, Bremerhaven, Bremen, and Oldenburg in Germany, Chalmers in Sweden, and Stavanger in Norway.

Through our partnership with BZEE and in the development of these projects we have developed close links with colleges in France, Germany, Canada, Ireland and the USA, all of whom are delivering similar programmes, and in the UK have good working partnerships with Durham University and South Tyneside College.