STL WindStart: Tackling the Wind Technician Shortage

Allen Hall and Joel Saxum speak with Brandon McKelvain and Jeremy McKelvain from Safety Technology USA (STL) to discuss their trailblazing WindStart program. They visited STL's impressive training facilities in Abilene, Texas and discovered how the organization is addressing the critical shortage of wind technicians through hands-on, industry-focused education.



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Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, along with my co host, Joel Saxum. The U. S. wind industry needs to train thousands of new wind turbine technicians in the coming years to meet our ambitious goals for wind energy deployment. And today we're joined by Brandon McKelvain training manager at Safety Technology USA.



Better known as STL. Also, Jeremy McKelvain who is the WindStart program manager at Safety Technology USA. Safety Technology USA, which is commonly called STL for short, is a leading wind technician training organization that provides industry standard accredited courses. Their goal is to help build the wind workforce.



of the future by training safer, more competent entry level and intermediate technicians. Joel and I visited the Safety Technology USA training facilities in Abilene, Texas recently. So if you haven't been to Abilene, you should visit their facility. It's pretty impressive. There we met with Brandon, and we're really impressed by the level of training equipment and the variety of training programs.



So Brandon, Jeremy, welcome to the program.



Brandon McKelvain: Yeah, thank you, Allen.



Allen Hall: We need thousands of wind technicians. And right now, especially in West Texas, where you guys are there's a huge demand for technicians that are trained and are knowledgeable in the wind industry. And, one of the, one of the programs you have To do that is the wind start program.



And I want to start there because I want to everybody understand what is the wind start program. And if you want to get into wind, why would you choose that program?



Jeremy McKelvain: What we do is we go out to career fairs trade schools, community college. advertise WindStart. Yes, it is STL or safety technology but it's a program for it.



We get them interested and tell them what we offer through our WindStart program at safety technology, get them interested and then get them signed up for these classes. Give them their relevant training, all their certifications give them some extra training as well. That's a little bit more technical to prepare them for an entry level job into the wind industry.



And then connect them with our partners that we have, our customers that we have for interviews, try and get them hired on right away. You mentioned that we have thousands of people that we need to hire. By 2030, it's estimated that we need to hire close to 500, 000 bodies for the wind industry.



So doing this as a wind star program as the manager go in and we try and find those bodies there. You get good paying jobs. You have a reliable career. And for me, my whole thing was, I love helping people. I love helping people and guiding people. I've done it for 20 years in the Air Force. Now I just transitioned into this, so that's what the windstar program is a way to introduce people into the wind industry.



Let's be real. Let's face it. Renewable energy is the way of the future and through safety technology,