Nontsasa Gaga, one of the very few females training as a Wind Turbine Service Technician (WTST) in South Africa, is having her stipend sponsored by AltGen while she spends time on site for the internship as part of the course. AltGen is extremely proud to be actively reshaping the narrative of a male-dominated part of the industry. Nontsasa’s turbine technician course was the first time that the South African Renewable Energy Technology Centre, SARETEC, saw a larger intake of females enrolled – 54% women. Could this be the start of women in South Africa choosing more hands-on career paths?
Although Nontsasa struggled to secure a place to complete her internship, Vestas agreed to collaborate and make this possible and she is now based on Grassridge Wind Farm. Nontsasa says that she is extremely happy to have had the opportunity to train as a WTST and does not feel out of her depth, and we at AltGen are very proud to be a part of her journey.
“Coming from the Navy, there are some similarities in the working environment, I worked in a submarine and therefore had to get used to working in very confined spaces and extreme conditions. I spent time literally under the water, and now I am approximately 100m in the air on a wind turbine daily”
