Cogent: National Skills Academy for Nuclear’s provider network goes from strength to strength

The Nuclear Department, part of the Defence Academy College of Management and Technology, has become the latest addition to the National Skills Academy for Nuclear’s network of Quality Assured Providers.

The National Skills Academy for Nuclear has been established at the request of Nuclear employers to address the key skills and training challenges facing the Nuclear industry.

The Skills Academy is currently contracting with providers throughout the UK who meet the Skills Academy’s rigorous Quality Assurance standards. This Quality Assurance activity ensures only the highest quality nuclear training provision is offered via the Skills Academy’s network, allowing nuclear employers to choose providers with confidence. Currently there are eight fully assured providers in the Skills Academy network, with a further eight currently completing the quality assurance process.

The safe and effective operation of nuclear power plants, as well as the evolving demands of new technology in the design of new generations of plant, requires unique and highly-specialised education and training. The Nuclear Department, based in HMS Sultan, Gosport, has demonstrated it’s commitment to meeting this challenge across all phases of the nuclear programme, from design and construction through operation and maintenance and, ultimately, decommissioning and disposal.

The Nuclear Department has over 40 years proven experience in the provision of high quality nuclear education, mainly in support of the UK defence programme, but increasingly for the civil nuclear sector. The Nuclear Department offers courses at all levels, from introduction level to postgraduate, in all key nuclear disciplines including Reactor Physics, Nuclear Engineering, Radiation Protection, Safety Case Development and Nuclear Safety Management. The majority of courses are delivered at HMS Sultan, although training is also provided at the employer’s site.

Jean Llewellyn Chief Executive of the National Skills Academy for Nuclear

“We are delighted to welcome Nuclear Department, part of the Defence Academy College of Management and Technology. Appointing the highest quality providers to the Skills Academy network is of fundamental importance in ensuring excellent delivery of training across the nuclear sector. If the UK is to realise its ambitions in the nuclear arena then a growing, highly skilled and competent workforce is essential. The Skills Academy has a key role to play in this by the development of an excellent provider base that can deliver training, skills and behavioural development to the standard required by employers in this global sector. In the first four years the Skills Academy Quality Assurance scheme aims to confirm provider status to just 35 providers.”

John Robertson, Assistant Director of the Nuclear Department

“We are very pleased to be accredited by the Skills Academy as a Quality Assured Provider. We are committed to the design and delivery of training in close consultation with employers and have well-developed internal and external validation processes to ensure that we are getting it right! We are therefore delighted that the National Skills Academy for Nuclear has acknowledged that our training is not only of high quality, but very much employer-led.”

Joanna Woolf, Cogent CEO said:

“The Skills Academy is doing its job of building on existing best practice. Because there is such a rigorous accreditation process in place, both employers and learners can be confident in the knowledge that they will be benefiting from world-class training, underpinned by Cogent qualifications. This is an important step on a journey that is bringing a streamlined approach to skills and training, one that will support nuclear employers in their drive to lead the way in every aspect of their operations.”

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Notes to editors

1. The National Skills Academy network will be the new gold standard for industry training, aiming to improve productivity and tackle skills shortages across England. Each National Skills Academy puts employers at the heart of skills training for their sector: they influence the curriculum to ensure it reflects employers’ needs; get involved in the Academy’s management; set standards and influence strategic direction.

National Skills Academies aim to:

· deliver high quality training for a specific sector
· provide first-class teaching in a modern learning environment
· be centres of innovation and creativity in skills development for their sector
· be flexible, sustaining the closest possible relationships with employers of all sizes
· build specialist networks with a range of other learning providers, so that new thinking, new methods and higher standards are shared, to the benefit of learners and employers.

The National Skills Academy network was initiated by the Government to address the need for a world class workforce with better skills than ever before. It is managed by the Learning and Skills Council working in partnership with the Department for Education and Skills, the Sector Skills Development Agency and the Department of Trade and Industry.

For more information see: www.nationalskillsacademy.co.uk

2. Cogent is the Sector Skills Council for the chemicals, pharmaceuticals, nuclear, oil and gas, petroleum and polymer industries.

The development of the NSA concept

The NSA policy initiative was first announced in the 2005 Skills White Paper which included a commitment to establish a network of Academies covering each major sector of the economy. The White Paper referred to the need to build on existing models, and it also gave a commitment that employers were going to be given the lead role in developing Academies. The White Paper said that beyond some general principles the Government ‘will not prescribe what an Academy should be’ and ‘it will be for the employers in each sector to take the initiative in working out the approach that will best meet their needs’.

Notes and Contact Details

Additional press and media enquiries should be made in the first instance to Mary Kinsella Communications Officer, National Skills Academy for Nuclear m.kinsella@nuclear.nsacademy.co.uk or 01925 607044