GWO Safety & Training Awards 2024

The GWO Safety & Training Awards are returning for a 3rd edition, taking place on October 9th in Orlando, USA. The awards are the world’s first programme of its kind recognising the skills and impact of training providers and instructors keeping the wind workforce safe.

Training Team of the Year

The Training Team of the Year Award recognizes outstanding work by the GWO training providers following these criteria:

  • Instructor Development
  • Learning Environment & Scenario Training
  • Contribution to the community & Industry
The entry form for the Training Team of the Year category is the same for every entrant participating in the competition. The initial questions serve to identify the exact training centre and/or training team. This is followed by free response questions regarding each of the three criteria (described below). The aim is to collect adequate information to make it easy for the judges to score the entries and so find the award winners. The free response questions require entrants to write up to 200 words and provides the opportunity to give more details on aspects of their training. Supporting materials (photo, video, other document types) may be added to entries towards the end of the form.

Regional Sub-grouping

Once the judges assign scores, the entries will be divided into regional groups: Europe, Middle East & Africa, Americas, Asia Pacific. If more than 13 entries come from a specific geographic area (such as USA & Canda, UK or South America), regional groups will be split to create new sub-groups accordingly. The ultimate decision-making power rests on the judging panel. The entry with the highest score across all the criteria in each regional sub-group will be the winner of the Training Team of the Year of that sub-group. The judging panel will then award then highly commended prizes to other entries which have scored high in individual criteria, in each region (example: Highly commended for ‘Learning Environment & Scenario Training’, Americas). 

What's new on 2024

The 2024 GWO Safety & Training Awards celebrate excellence globally in all aspects of training. From the experience of the first and second editions of the awards, GWO and the judging panel have worked on improving the competition experience. Importantly, entrants will now be recognised for their impact on specific aspects of their GWO training. However, the goal of the Awards is always to shine a light on the best in safety training globally.

-Training providers can enter a specific team of instructors at their one address (as many entries as the teams at the training centre) or they can enter one submission collectively.

- We have divided the region EMEA into two different regions: "Europe" & "Middle East & Africa"

- We have added a new category "Instructor of the Year".  

The GWO Safety & Training Awards recognises outstanding work by the GWO training providers following these criteria:

  • Instructor Development: Continuous improvement in GWO Standards and Modules, as well as industry knowledge. 
  • Learning Environment & Scenario Training: Level of equipment and facilities; accommodation learning needs and requirements of students. 
  • Contribution to the community & Industry: How do you contribute to your local community and industry? Do you participate in local community initiatives? Do you share safety knowledge with the professional community? Do you participate in industry initiatives that benefit the safety of our workforce?

Young Achiever of the Year

This special award is created for GWO Training Providers to nominate the very best young talent from within their organisations. In this category, you can submit a nomination on your own behalf or be nominated by a colleague, client or manager.
  • The nominee is 30 years old or younger on the 1st July 2024
  • The nominee is employed by or contracted to a GWO Certified Training Provider
  • Employed at a GWO Certified training provider for a period of at least one calendar year up to the 1st July 2024
  • This category is not limited to instructors at GWO Training Providers

Therefore, you may like to consider anyone who meets the age requirements above who has achieved things such as:

  • Very high client satisfaction rating
  • Highly effective instruction and teaching methods
  • Community work and outreach
  • Helped support GWO’s mission to create a safer workforce in wind

Instructor of the Year

This year, GWO  introduced a new category: “Instructor of the Year”. The instructor of the year award will shine a light on the excellent instructors delivering GWO training each and every day. The award will highlight the vital role GWO instructors play in ensuring a safe future for the wind workforce.

Here's how it works:

Nomination: Course participants are encouraged to nominate their instructors when they complete their WINDA feedback survey. You can also create QR codes for participants to nominate following this link: https://forms.monday.com/forms/c7f0f669a061382d3aa83f43e6e97a91?r=use1 

Official Nomination: Training centres need to validate an instructor’s nomination for them to be entered for the award. GWO will email relevant training centres between May 1st and 17th about the validations. This link will become available only during that period.

Judging: An external panel will assess nominees based on participant feedback and training centre input.

Winners: Shortlisted candidates will be announced in August 2024, with the grand reveal at the Safety & Training Awards Ceremony on October 9th in Orlando, USA.

Bring your “A” game!

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