The Offshore Wind Training Opening Ceremony was held on September 17th at the MIRDC under the guidance of the Bureau of Energy, Ministry of Economic Affairs. The first mobile training facility in Taiwan was launched at the same time. As approved by the Executive Yuan under the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, the Marine Technology Innovation Center will be established at Xingda Harbor. In addition, the Bureau of Energy, MOEA has commissioned MIRDC to carry out personnel training for the offshore wind energy industry. The training center will serve as a base for advanced marine engineer training and certification in Asia Pacific region to ensure supply of localized manpower and enhance the current standard of marine works in Taiwan. It will be a solid support for the development of offshore wind marine works and an effort to promote compliance with the international maritime labor safety and environment requirements.
Bureau of Energy, MOEA stated that offshore wind power capacity would be set at 5.5GW by 2025; developers and wind farm construction have been well prepared, and the focus now would be on stepping up administrative measures and improving infrastructure to help developers achieve the wind power capacity goal. Taiwan will be made an important industrial cluster of offshore wind energy technology in Asia. To meet the pressing manpower need, which is expected to exceed a demand for 5,500 in offshore wind professionals by 2025, the marine engineer training and certification center is established to undertake the critical task of nurturing talents and giving orientation training. The center will be able to train 500 persons per annum in the future.
Dr. Ren-yi Lin, the Chairman of the Board from MIRDC, explained that the mobile training facility currently located in MIRDC is a temporary site, while construction of the Marine Technology Engineering Training and Accreditation Center at Xingda Harbor is being speeded up and expected to be inaugurated in the fourth quarter of 2020. It will constitute the Kaohsiung marine technology cluster in conjunction with SingDa Marine Structure Corporation. The training center is dedicated to bringing up more offshore wind energy talents for the industry. MIRDC has collaborated with international benchmarking enterprises, such as Maersk Training, MARIN, etc., to provide the most comprehensive courses including the Global Wind Organization’s (GWO) Basic Safety Training (BST) and Basic Technical Training (BTT), as well as Advanced Rescue Training (ART) and Enhanced First Aid (EFA) training. Customized courses and venue rental services are also offered. MIRDC also cooperates with the well-known international certification and standard institute DNV GL Group to offer Marine Operation (MO) programs for enriching local professionals in their knowledge about offshore wind-related regulations and operational standards of marine works.
Furthermore, in view of the dire need for offshore wind professionals, industry-academia-research collaboration is enacted by chance of the occasion to foster local talents. MIRDC held an offshore wind manpower sharing session on the same day, where major international offshore wind heavyweights like Ørsted , Boskalis, Star Energy, DNV GL, AoN Taiwan were invited to share practical experiences about vocational requirements at various stages of the offshore wind energy industry with National Sun Yat-sen University, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, National Cheng Kung University, etc. from the perspectives of developers, marine works firms, operators and maintenance technicians, certification bodies, and insurance companies. Dr. Chiu-feng Lin, the President of MIRDC, believes the face-to-face exchange between the industries and universities would allow young students to gain a deeper understanding of the offshore wind industry and the work contents of the industry. It aims to equip students with the necessary skills and competence in advance during their study, so that they may join the job market promptly as well-trained professionals that the industry demands.