Wind Energy

Wind energy Vestas again named a winner of prestigious prize in e-learning

Vestas has won the 2011 title of “Learning Leader” for its free e-learning modules about wind turbines, available to the public worldwide. The title, one of the top global prizes in the e-learning industry, was announced by Bersin & Associates on February 10 in Oakland, California.

Vestas, a global leader in wind energy, and Danish companies Effective-Learning and Empatii partnered to create more than a dozen mini-modules that aim to educate the world about wind turbines and wind power.

The modules were created from Vestas’ five-hour internal e-learning modules that previously had won both a Bersin & Associates Learning Leaders Award and the Brandon Hall Award, another top e-learning prize.
“Knowledge about wind energy is important to all of us, and to our global future. When we won the prizes for our internal e-learning, it made sense to share the learning outside of own walls. We are tremendously pleased to be recognized again with the Bersin Award,” says Roald Steen Jakobsen, People & Culture president at Vestas.

More than 25,000 users worldwide have viewed the e-learning, which launched in November 2009 at vestas.com/vestasworld. The e-learning users have included university students, wind energy customers and people living near proposed wind farm sites.

The modules walk viewers through a virtual world of characters to show wind turbines from the drawing board to installation and operation. Topics include the environmental impact of wind turbines, how sites are chosen and how turbine parts are made. There is also a game in which people can compete against a Vestas computer to set angle of turbine blades to harvest the most wind.

“In Denmark we are at the forefront in the growing market of learning and knowledge through virtual worlds, and we look forward to developing more e-learning solutions with Vestas,” says Kristian Rude, CEO of Effective-Learning.

“Companies are also using this on their own systems, in their own curriculums,” says Roald Steen Jakobsen. “One company in South Carolina will train 250,000 students in 2011 with these e-learning modules. We are exploring more opportunities for this type of knowledge sharing with companies and institutions in the future.”

The modules are available at vestas.com/vestasworld.