OpenHydro Technology Ltd, the leading tidal turbine energy firm from Louth, has scooped the overall corporate award at the 13th World Conference of Continuing Engineering Education (WCCEE) in Valencia, Spain.
OpenHydro was nominated by Engineers Ireland as the winner of its national Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Company of the Year award in 2011. OpenHydro was among a range of organisations from throughout Europe, Asia and America that were in the running for the award. The international judging panel felt that the achievements of the engineering organisation were outstanding, particularly in its use of professional development initiatives to underpin business strategy.
John Power, Director General Engineers Ireland commented “This is a wonderful advert for the standards of Irish engineering firms which put CPD at the forefront of their engineers’ development. OpenHydro is a great example of a company that has embraced CPD and has transitioned from being an R&D organisation to now supplying some of the world’s largest utility companies with commercial energy generating turbines. I wish to congratulate OpenHydro on their achievement and wish them every success in the future”
The award, the Glen Martin Award for Corporate Leadership in Continuing Engineering Education, honours companies whose support for continuing engineering education demonstrates world class leadership and whose continuing engineering education practices and programmes serve as models for companies throughout the world.
OpenHydro began with three employees in 2004 and today the company employs more than 70 mainly engineering staff, across two main locations, the Greenore Technical Centre and the Dublin office. The company is working with EDF in France, Nova Scotia Power in North America and Bord Gáis Energy in Ireland.
The WCCEE is hosted annually by the global body, the International Association for Continuing Engineering Education (IACEE).