Nuclear Future Volume 8 issue 6 olume 9 issue 1
All in it together
Collaboration is key to meeting the skills for nuclear challenge, says Jean Llewellyn OBE
by one organisation acting alone. To consider the specific requirements across the whole nuclear programme a holistic and collaborative approach involving the skills requirements for nuclear, construction, engineering construction, manufacturing and research and development is needed. This requires active participation from industry, government, skills bodies, training providers and other key stakeholders. The National Skills Academy for Nuclear is the lead strategic skills body for the nuclear industry, and as such is at the helm of the collaborative approach to ensure the sector has the skills and competencies the sector requires. The Nuclear Energy Skills Alliance brings together the expert
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skills bodies relevant to nuclear, alongside government and the academic community to investigate the current and future skills needs of nuclear new build and the UK civil nuclear programme more broadly. Represented on the Skills Alliance are: National Skills Academy Nuclear (chair), Cogent SSC, CITB- ConstructionSkills, ECITB, Semta SSC, the Dalton Nuclear Institute, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Welsh Government. In the Government’s Nuclear Supply Chain Action Plan,
published on 5 December 2012, the Alliance was tasked with addressing key skills shortages. The Nuclear Energy Skills Alliance have identified a list of 22
skills priorities, of which 10 have been identified as critical to the successful delivery of the nuclear new build programme, alongside continued nuclear operations and decommissioning. The partners have identified deliverables to meet these priorities, which are included in the Skills Alliance’s Action Plan. The Action Plan will regularly be updated and reassessed to develop and grow with the requirements identified by employers. Identifying the skills gaps through market intelligence is of
paramount importance to the Skills Alliance, and its partners. This will be completed via the Nuclear Workforce Model, a project led by Cogent SSC in which all members will be playing an active role through the sourcing of relevant data and expertise to trace the supply of labour over the course of the nuclear programme. Outputs from the model will become the base for evidence for the skills interventions and aid in preparing for the different new build scenarios and the resulting demand on labour. The priorities have been divided across the Skills Alliance’s
membership with partners taking lead roles on relevant strands. The National Skills Academy Nuclear is leading on two of the identified critical skills priorities in the action plan: • The basic requirements for working on nuclear sites in the UK
30 Skills
he skills challenge facing the planned nuclear programme in the UK is a demanding one, but one the industry is working hard to meet. This challenge cannot be met
and an awareness and understanding of the nuclear industry. The Skills Academy’s Triple Bar programme(s) and the Award for Nuclear Industry Awareness will aid in raising the awareness of the nuclear industry and its safety culture to new entrants. The Triple Bar Existing Sites training has been received well by industry, which has led to the Skills Academy working with EDF Energy NNB, CITB-ConstructionSkills and eOrigen to develop the Triple Bar Nuclear New Build sites which will be launched at the end of January.
• The flexibility and mobility of the workforce and supply chain and the ability to demonstrate supply chain competence. The Nuclear Skills Passport has been developed and is being implemented as a vehicle for employers to record and demonstrate attainment of agreed nationally recognised training standards and to enable cross-site recognition of internal and external skills development. Over 50% of Skills Academy member companies are now implementing the Nuclear Skills Passport.
The Skills Academy’s Certificate of Nuclear Professionalism, developed in partnership with the Open University and delivered by partners Aston University, UCLan and 20-20 Business Insight will be an important tool in supporting the development of the required skills in other priority areas, e.g. safety case authors, project management and the development of new graduate entrants. Across all the Skills Academy activities the Skills Academy’s High Quality Provider Network will be utilised to provide confidence in quality of delivery. Another priority for the nuclear industry is to increase the
number of trained and qualified craft and technical personnel to replace the number of retirees and to support expansion demand. Apprenticeships are one of the key routes of growing new talent and are a vital component to offset an ageing workforce profile and to be able to pass on skills, knowledge and experience for the future UK nuclear programme. There is a strong demand for apprentices in the future;
estimates suggest that by 2016 as many as 4,000 apprentices may be required. Recent research into apprenticeships undertaken by the Skills Academy across its members revealed a shortfall in planned apprentice recruitment to meet this target. This reported demand has led to large employers including the NDA, Sellafield Ltd and LLW Repository Ltd to invest in the Supply Chain Apprentices for Nuclear (SCAN). The SCAN scheme provides funding support for supply chain
organisations, with contracts with the funders of the scheme, in employing apprentices for the first time, or to grow their current apprenticeship intake. The scheme also supports the continued professional development of apprentices through the SCAN Educational Bursary to help support their development in nuclear.
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