Launching Wind Power Ready: Atlantic City
When New Jerseyans think of the offshore wind industry, most picture the hardware. But behind every offshore wind farm is a team of wind farm technicians keeping the turbines spinning and providing clean energy.
For Ørsted, this makes hiring technicians for our offshore wind farms a top priority. That’s why we’ve created a unique training opportunity that combines our hiring needs with a focus on equitably delivering the benefits of clean energy to local communities.
Wind Power Ready: Atlantic City is a joint program developed by Rowan College of South Jersey, the Center for Family Services, the New Jersey Wind Institute, and Ørsted. This workforce development program will offer 24 New Jersey residents the chance to train as wind technicians, while being paid full-time and receiving employment-boosting support services.
Participants will join a 5-month program, gaining technical skills, earning safety certifications, and undertaking onsite training. Participants also receive career coaching, helping them land good-paying jobs as wind technicians and launch careers that last decades.
Real support for Wind Power Ready trainees
The goal of Wind Power Ready goes beyond training wind technicians – we want to develop an offshore wind industry that benefits and includes disadvantaged communities. In addition to skills and career training, we’re partnering with the Center for Family Services to provide counseling and social services to participants. Through local partners, the program offers help with transportation, housing, childcare, and other obstacles that can hold people back from succeeding in their careers.
A new generation of Ørsted wind technicians
In Atlantic City, multiple new jobs for wind technicians will come from Ørsted. Following Wind Power Ready training, we will add program graduates to our New Jersey team, aligning our hiring with the environmental justice movement’s Justice40 Initiative. This is part of Ørsted’s commitment to creating an equitable, diverse, and inclusive clean energy industry.
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Wind Power Ready: Atlantic City will offer accessible, paid training to locals interested in well-paid careers in green energy. The program has been deliberately designed to support members of disadvantaged communities, including those most harmed by climate change.
-Erik Antokal
Workforce Development Director, Ørsted
