Workforce meltdown
12 Mar 2014
The nuclear industry supply chain is taking matters into its own hands as it seeks to battle a decline in skills that comes at the same time as decommissioning and new build projects increase.
The nuclear industry is facing one of its toughest periods in decades as low staff turnover rates and the rising average age of its workforce combine to threaten leaving the pool of highly-skilled employees rather dry.
Figures released in the Perkins Review late last year suggest that the UK engineering sector as a whole will need around 100,000 new scientists, engineers and technologists per year until 2020 to avoid a skills shortage.
Within the nuclear sector, new build projects such as EDF’s Hinkley Point C power station and on-going decommissioning work like that being undertaken at Sellafield mean that the need to replace those skilled engineers going into retirement is top of the agenda.
In order to adequately train the next generation of nuclear engineers, a number of initiatives have been put in place to facilitate the nuclear education of new and existing personnel.
To read the full article, please click on the related files above.
