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Wind Turbine Technician

Reaching new heights in an innovative clean energy industry

Wind farming is growing in popularity as well as a demand for skilled technicians to scale the large windmills. WorkingNation has an insider's look into this well-paying job direct from a Wind Turbine Technician himself.
As wind farming grows in popularity, so too is the demand for skilled technicians to maintain the wind turbines. Excellent communication skills are essential as wind turbine technicians must operate near dangerous blades in close quarters high in the sky, where weather conditions can be more extreme than on the ground.

If you have a healthy respect for heights and want to work in renewable energy, becoming a Wind Turbine Technician can be your entry into this growth industry.

The star of our video, James Van Dyken, obtained his degree to become a Wind Turbine Technician from NW Renewable Energy Institute (NWREI) in Vancouver, WA. The degree worked because it landed him a job at Avangrid Renewables shortly after graduation!

Due to the high demand for Wind Turbine Technicians, many schools across the country now offer programs catered specifically towards providing the skills necessary for their graduates to land jobs on wind farms. Programs can range from 10 weeks to two years. Scholarships and financial aid are available for many of the programs.

Below are five programs that Avangrid Renewables have hired graduates from to work at their farms across the country.
Iowa Lakes Community College

Program: Wind & Energy Turbine Technology
Location: Estherville, Iowa
Tuition Cost: Around $10,000
Duration: 3 Semesters – 48 Credits
Degree: Diploma Program
Link: https://www.iowalakes.edu/academic-programs/programs-of-study/industrial-technology/wind-energy-turbine-technology/

Lake Region State College

Program: Wind Energy Technician
Location: Devil’s Lake, North Dakota
Tuition Cost: Around $9,000
Duration: 4 Semesters – 61 Credits
Degree: Wind Energy Technician, Associate in Applied Science
Linkhttps://www.lrsc.edu/academics/programs/cte-programs/wind-energy-technology

Kalamazoo Valley Community College

Program: Wind Turbine Technician Academy
Location: Kalamazoo, MI
Tuition Cost: $14,000
Duration: 24 Weeks – Monday-Friday – 8 hours a day
Degree: Certificate
Link: https://www.kvcc.edu/academics/wind/

Columbia Gorge Community College

Program: Electro-Mechanical Technology
Location: The Dalles, Oregon
Tuition Cost: Around $13,000
Duration: 2 Years – 106 Credits
Degree: Associate of Applied Science
Linkhttps://www.cgcc.edu/sites/default/files/catalog/2017-18_CGCC_Catalog.pdf#page=104

Program: Electro-Mechanical Technology
Location: The Dalles, Oregon
Tuition Cost: Around $7,000
Duration: 1 Year – 54 Credits
Degree: Career & Technical Education Certificate
Link: https://www.cgcc.edu/sites/default/files/catalog/2017-18_CGCC_Catalog.pdf#page=104

NW Renewable Energy Institute (NWREI)

Program: Wind Turbine Technician Training Program
Location: Vancouver, WA
Tuition Cost: $13,500
Duration: 6 Months
Degree: Certificate
Link: https://www.nw-rei.com/

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I Want That Job

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.