Wind turbine academy grad lands first tech job

When Lief Doezema opened the doors on top of the 260-foot-high wind turbine in Mackinaw City and took in the view of the bridge and the lakes he knew he’d made the right career decision.

Doezema’s new job as a Wind Turbine Technician begins this week. He’s one of 16 graduates of the first class of Kalamazoo Valley Community College’s Wind Turbine Technician Academy. Fourteen of the 16 grads have jobs, and two are weighing their options. Doezema’s landed a job with Turn Energy in the Columbia River Gorge, the boundary between Washington and Oregon states.

It’s prime wind turbine country. Doezema says when he visited it didn’t appear there were a lot of turbines, then he started spotting one wind farm after another.

He met his new employers at the American Wind Energy Association Convention in Dallas this year. They were impressed with his experience and training. Doezema found at the conference most students don’t get the hands-on training offered by the academy. It’s certified by the leading trainer for wind-turbine technicians across Europe and Asia — Bildungszentrum fur Erneuerebare Energien (BZEE). In English, that means “Renewable Energy Education Center.”

The course was something Doezema had been looking for. The 27-year-old former carpenter had been reading up on renewable energies. He vividly remembers the day he heard a news story on the radio announcing the opening of the Wind Turbine Technician Academy. “I couldn’t believe it was in my own hometown,” Doezema says.

Training will get even more hands-on with the construction 90-foot tower and turbine-unit platform that are scheduled to be installed in the M-TEC’s parking median for training purposes going up the summer of 2010.

KVCC started its second 26 weeks of intensive training Wind Turbine Technician Academy June 14. The third round of training begins in January.

Writer: Kathy Jennings
Source: Leif Doezema