Name: Jared Click

Title: Lead Trainer

Tenure: 13 years

Hobbies: Hunting, fishing, playing golf, and, most importantly, his wife and two children.

Bio: Jared Click likes teaching. It’s in his blood; both of his parents worked for the public school system before they retired. That love, that passion for teaching, was passed on to their son, and now, for Airway Services, that’s exactly what Click does. He teaches. He trains. And he makes his team better. 

Click began working for Airway Services in September of 2010. At first, he worked as a technician. But after a year, he became a trainer. 

“I got about a week’s worth of training when I started working at Airway,” Click said. “Then I flew up to Minnesota and did a couple of projects up there and in North Dakota. I traveled around as a technician for a little over a year, and then I got word that we were going to create a training department for Airway. Airway has done a great job growing with the industry training needs, and that’s what it did in this case.”

Today, the training department of Airway Services is impeccable. It’s one of, if not the most important aspect of Airway Services, and it is fundamental to every other service that the company performs. 

A big reason for that is because of Click and his contemporaries. 

“I started training in 2011,” Click said. “So I’ve been here for about 12 years. Myself and one of our other trainers were the first to do GWO (Global Wind Organization) Training here in the U.S. through Siemens training.” 

GWO is the absolute benchmark of safety training in the wind industry, and Airway, along with all of the other Takkion companies, lead the way in every aspect of GWO training. 

“My title is that of a lead trainer,” Click shared. “So my responsibilities are just making sure that all of the other trainers have what they need, that we have a schedule set, that we have all of the supplies and the materials that we need, and that we keep up with the GWO curriculum and standards.” 

Click said that the GWO curriculum changes every year and sometimes twice a year. So it’s important to constantly be aware of what changes and what doesn’t. Click stated that, in his position, he teaches basic technical training, basic safety training, and controlled hazardous energy. Those are the three primary focuses, but, of course, there’s always more to the job than meets the eye. That’s one of the things that Click loves about the gig. 

“We have a strong team here that’s really doing the majority of these trainings,” he offered. “I’m just trying to be there to support our instructors.”

Click is the only Lead Trainer for Airway at the moment, and he has a team of seven other trainers – all of whom work tirelessly to ensure the safety of the rest of their team. 

“Safety is the most important thing for us,” he stated. “We get very personal with everyone as far as families go, and we try to make them understand that there’s something bigger at home that they need to get back to. And it’s when you make it personal for them, reminding them to come home to their kids or their significant others, that it really hits home for them. We show them that there’s a bigger picture; there are more important things than work. And if we can hit that, if we can get them to understand that, yes, work is important and the quality of our work and customer service is of the utmost importance – but if you’re not safe and you can’t come home for the most important things for you, then you shouldn’t be working in this industry. Because it’s dangerous.” 

Click takes safety very, very seriously. All of the trainers, technicians, managers, and everybody else takes the safety aspect very seriously because safety is, without question, the most important part of what they do. 

Click said the team takes care of each other every day and that they really, really care about each other. 

“My favorite part of the job is working with our team,” he shared. “We get along really well. Looking from the outside in, you’d think we’ve known each other for 10-plus years. And some of these guys, I have known for 10-plus years. We’re a very close-knit group of instructors, along with the office staff as well. But working with our team is my favorite part of the job.” 

Click’s other favorite part is, of course, the job itself. Click believes he was born to teach, and that’s what he gets to do, day in and day out. 

“It’s actually something that I really look back on and smile,” he stated. “I was originally going to school for kinesiology, but also to be a coach. I wanted to be a coach my whole life. My father was a coach. I enjoy teaching people things, and I enjoy that process of seeing the lightbulb go off in their head and seeing the progression of somebody figuring out whatever we’re working on. That’s what I enjoy – sharing that information, sharing that knowledge, and passing it on to somebody else.”

For 12 years, that is what Jared Click has been doing. He’s the Lead Trainer for a reason, and that reason is because he is the absolute best of the best. 

At least, that’s what Dustin Jenson, the Director of Safety & Training for Airway Services, believes. 

“Jared’s 13-year career with the company has been a testament to his passion for teaching others,” Jenson said. “He was the company’s original full-time safety trainer, which provided him the opportunity to lend his talent to the development of Airway Services’ training program from the ground up.  He has seen safety practices and techniques evolve over almost a decade-and-a-half, a unique perspective few trainers in our industry possess. Over the years, Jared has forged positive relationships with industry leaders, customers, and suppliers, showing a level of dedication to not only improving our training program but shaping the workforce in the renewable energy industry as a whole.  Jared has a way of genuinely connecting with others that fosters the development of skills while forging positive, meaningful relationships along the way.” 

And those qualities are ones that, well…they’re ones you just can’t teach.