Memorandum 90
Submission from the Cogent Sector Skills
Council and the National Skills Academy Nuclear
This submission, in support of the Innovation,
Universities, Science and Skills Select Committee case study into
nuclear engineering, is forwarded on behalf of Cogent Sector Skills
Council and the National Skills Academy Nuclear following consultation
with representatives from the nuclear industry.
Cogent is the Sector Skills Council (SSC) for
the Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, Offshore Oil and Gas, Nuclear,
Downstream Petroleum and Polymer Industries. It is one of 25 SSCs
which, together with the Sector Skills Development Agency forms
the Skills for Business Network.
The National Skills Academy Nuclear (NSAN) was
launched on 31 January 2008 and its vision is to create, develop
and promote world class skills and career pathways to support
a sustainable future for the UK Nuclear industry. The Academy
is the leading body of an employer led strategy to develop a quality
standardised and co-ordinated approach to education, training
and skills in the Nuclear Sector.
This submission concludes that:
- There are skill gaps within the nuclear
industry and the industry average age profile is skewed towards
the higher age bracket. In addition there are some specific shortages
in defined employment areas (such as HSE inspectors) and in some
essential specialist disciplines (such as Safety Case Specialists).
Skills initiatives and their associated funding must be maintained
to ensure that sufficient qualified and experienced people are
available to support all aspects of the nuclear industry.
- The competition from national and international
projects has the potential to lead to shortages in nuclear specialists
and those conventional skills that are required to support the
UK decommissioning and new build programme.
- Positive action is being taken by industry,
in conjunction with Cogent Sector Skills Council, the National
Skills Academy Nuclear and other bodies, to improve the situation
and regularly update the background data on which skills planning
and the associated training provision is based.
- The support of Government is vital in sustaining
the skills base, through provision of funding and legislative
action.
INTRODUCTION
1. This submission, in support of the Innovation,
Universities and Skills Select Committee case study into nuclear
engineering, is forwarded on behalf of Cogent Sector Skills Council
and the National Skills Academy Nuclear following consultation
with representatives from the nuclear industry.
2. The submission covers all of the elements
of the terms of reference for this inquiry, namely:
- the role of engineering and engineers in
UK society;
- the role of engineering and engineers in
UK's innovation drive;
- the state of the engineering skills base
in the UK, including the supply of engineers and issues of diversity
(for example, gender and age profile);
- the importance of engineering to R&D
and the contribution of R&D to engineering; and
- the roles of industry, universities, professional
bodies, Government, unions and others in promoting engineering
skills and the formation and development of careers in engineering.
THE ROLE
OF ENGINEERING
AND ENGINEERS
IN UK SOCIETY
3. The term "nuclear engineer"
covers a range of specialisations (eg mechanical, electrical and
civil engineers, chemists, scientists and environmental engineers)
who work within the nuclear technical context and regulatory framework,
across the various aspects of the operating power generation,
defence, decommissioning and maintenance aspects of the nuclear
industry. Furthermore, they may be employed in research, design,
development, manufacturing, installation, commissioning, contracting,
consulting and teaching. Nuclear Engineers are therefore employed
across the full range of Science Engineering and Technology (SET)
areas of the industry.
4. Many of the graduate nuclear SET employees
are registered with the ECUK as Chartered Engineers, with a commitment
to achieving the highest professional standards and maintenance
of the highest levels of safety, protection of the environment
and innovation. They also have a major role in projecting the
image of the industry in which they work to ensure that it is
attractive to new recruits. However, the take up of registration
with ECUK as Incorporated Engineer or Engineer Technician is low
and well below the number of people eligible. ECUK is currently
promoting the EngTech scheme and this is welcomed.
THE ROLE
OF ENGINEERS
IN UK'S
INNOVATION DRIVE
5. Within the short and intermediate term
the nuclear industry will require to face up to challenges in
keeping existing power generation plants running to ensure a power
generation gap does not develop while new build is progress and,
face up to the challenges of decommissioning legacy plant. The
challenges presented by the establishment of the Nuclear Decommissioning
Authority (NDA) to accelerate the clean up of UK's nuclear legacy
requires many new innovative processes to be enable these plants
to be decommissioned safely and with demonstrable cost and time
efficiency gains. Mature processes exist to deal with the decommissioning
process and the tail end waste reduction and waste disposal. However,
innovative processes could lead to improvements which would assist
in accelerating the process and provide these efficiency gains.
Innovative engineers will be needed to develop these processes
to accelerate the decommissioning process whilst minimising the
generation of radioactive waste.
6. Currently any new build nuclear plant
will be of a generic design with modular construction on the chosen
site. While a high level of skill within the operating company
will be required to be the intelligent customer for this process,
the level of innovation will be limited. However, in the very
long term, UK must continue to ensure the security of energy supply
and future nuclear plants will need to have further improvements
to reduce waste generation and at the end of life, improved ability
to decommission nuclear plant with much reduced radioactive waste
generation. Research and Development will be required to enable
this innovation.
THE STATE
OF ENGINEERING
SKILLS BASE
IN THE
UK, INCLUDING THE
SUPPLY OF
ENGINEERS AND
ISSUES OF
DIVERSITY
7. The nuclear industry employs approximately
50,000 Science Engineering and Technology (SET) personnel. The
age profile of the nuclear industry is skewed towards the higher
age bracket with the many of the employees within 10 years of
retirement. Furthermore, a number of key "hot spots"
do exist-for example, in the Health and Safety Executive/Nuclear
Inspectorate, the employees tend to be concentrated in the higher
age bands. However, industry experience is needed for these positions,
which would explain this pattern. Age is also an issue in the
sub-industry areas of Nuclear Heat Generation & Fuel Handling.
Among process and machine operatives there is also a higher proportion
of older workers. These categories are essential to the viability
of all elements of the nuclear industry. The next 10 years will
therefore see a large number of retirements from the industry,
leading to a high level of replacement and training demand. There
is also currently a shortage of other essential skills such as
safety case specialists and project mangers with nuclear experience.
Uncertainty over the direction the industry was taking before
the establishment of the NDA and the decision on the potential
for new build, had led to a reduction in Graduate Development
Programmes and Apprenticeships. Graduate Development Programmes
are being revived and work has now commenced on development of
apprenticeships for the nuclear industry. This action is required
to ensure sufficient lead time to educate, train and provide experience
to new members of the industry in preparation for those retiring.
8. Competition from other industries (eg
petrochemical) or in support of other national major construction
programme, such as the Olympics, may also lead to a shortage of
skilled personnel in areas where national and international shortages
already exist. These include design engineers, particularly mechanical
and civil professionals, Construction and Commissioning Engineers
and Project and Programme Managers. Furthermore, the UK energy
market accounts for less than 2% of the global requirements and
many international energy production projects are underway or
in planning which could attract skilled people away from the UK
nuclear industry.
9. The nuclear SET workforce in the UK is
overwhelmingly white and male and women and ethnic minorities
are seriously under-represented. This could be related to the
attractiveness of the industry and its security requirements where
many jobs are only open to UK nationals. The Ethnic and Gender
ratios across the industry as a whole are shown in Table 1.
|
| Ethnicity
| % |
|
| White | | 96
|
| Non-White | | 4
|
| Gender
| % |
| Female | | 18
|
| Male | | 82
|
|
Whilst Table 1 shows 18% of the workforce in the nuclear
industry are female, many of these are in administrative posts
with only 12% being in SET occupations.
10. The occupation distribution is shown in Table 2 and
not surprisingly this shows that the educational level of employees
is at the higher S/NVQ level.
|
| Occupation | %
|
|
| Managers and Senior Officials | 4
|
| Professional Occupations | 38
|
| Associate Professional and Technical | 13
|
| Skilled Trades | 24
|
| Process Plant and Machinery Operations |
5 |
| Elementary Occupations | 5
|
| Occupations other than SET | 11
|
|
Table 2 Occupations by %
11. A graph of the education level of the personnel in
these occupations in the nuclear industry is mapped against the
educational requirements in Figure 1.
Figure 1 shows that there is an oversupply of people qualified
at S/NVQ Level 1 and below although these occupations only account
for 5% of the workforce. However, there is a 33% deficit of people
qualified to S/NVQ level 2 and 3 which account for 53% of the
nuclear industry.
12. The figures above account for the current state of
the industry, however, retirements, normal industrial churn and
the changing operations of the nuclear industry needs to be taken
into account. For example, when a nuclear power plant reaches
the end of life, there is a need to re-skill from operating skills
to decommissioning skills. Cogent research indicates that around
10,000 people will need to be trained or re-skilled over the next
10 years to cover the skills gap and many of these will be in
support of NDA programmes.
13. A new nuclear power station build programme is expected
to place a demand on construction skills from around 2011, with
specialist electrical and mechanical installation occurring a
year later. A few nuclear specialists will be required in the
early years to support the licensing and safety case preparations
but, with operations expected to commence in 2017, new build will
not be expected to place a great demand on new nuclear specialist
jobs until around 2015. Further research is being conducted in
this area by Cogent to support the Energy White Paper skills review..
There is an excellent opportunity for a pro-active approach to
skills development for the new build agenda and the mechanisms
are in place via NSAN, Cogent and the Universities to ensure that
we have the right skills in place at the right time to address
this challenge.
14. The training and re-skilling of the nuclear SET workforce
required to close and sustain the skill base of the nuclear industry
is not insurmountable and is being worked on by industry, the
NDA, Cogent Sector Skills Council, the National Skills Academy
Nuclear, Academia and others with Government support. Despite
all this effort, public perception is a major feature in recruitment
and retention in the nuclear industry. Until recently the image
of the nuclear industry has been that of a contaminating process
and an industry in decline. The clean-up facilitated by the NDA,
the prospect of new build and the impact of "global warming"
are now having a positive effect in attracting people into the
industry. This preposition is backed up by crude data such as
the number of people applying for nuclear MSc courses and the
large number of graduates vying for places on industry development
programmes.
THE IMPORTANCE
OF ENGINEERING
R&D AND THE
CONTRIBUTION OF
R&D TO ENGINEERING
15. There is a requirement to manage nuclear waste from
previous generations of nuclear plants from both civil and military
activities. Whilst these clean up activities generally use mature
technology options, there exists opportunities to reduce over
costs to UK tax payers through investment in research and development
into innovative new options. Even where mature technology options
are utilised, the waste management activities also require extensive
technical support.
16. Disposal of nuclear waste is a sensitive issue in
terms of proposed technology options and particularly location
of facilities. The UK Government has established a process for
evaluation of options for disposal of higher activity nuclear
waste based on learning from historic and international experiences.
The framework used has been to establish an advisory body titled
"Committee on Radioactive Waste Management" (CoRWM).
The CoRWM committee identified, in its summary review in 2006,
the need for "a commitment to an intensified programme of
research and development into the long-term safety of geological
disposal aimed at reducing uncertainties at generic and site-specific
levels, as well as into improved means for storing wastes in the
longer term." It is expected, based on these recommendations,
that a major research programme will be initiated.
17. Many roles in the nuclear industry require a high
level of technical competence, where the traditional entry route
is through the completion of postgraduate studies. It is believed
that for the industry to maintain a high level of technical competence,
a sustained programme of support to University research activities
will be required in the areas of nuclear science and engineering.
THE ROLES
OF INDUSTRY,
UNIVERSITIES, PROFESSIONAL
BODIES, GOVERNMENT
AND OTHERS
IN PROMOTING
ENGINEERING SKILLS
AND THE
FORMATION AND
DEVELOPMENT OF
CAREERS IN
ENGINEERING
18. Industry-Industry has a major role to play in sustaining
the nuclear SET skill base. Cogent Sector Skills Council and the
National Skills Academy Nuclear have had extremely good support
from the nuclear industry. This has taken the form of funding,
personnel secondments and resources in support of skills initiatives.
Industry must also play a full role in development of technical
staff through apprenticeships and graduate development programmes.
Traditionally the nuclear industry has appreciated the need to
have a highly skilled and motivated workforce to maintain the
high level of safety required and to respond to the high level
of safety regulation. The main companies also appreciate the need
to sustain the skill levels of their supply chain. However, many
of the companies in the Supply Chain have limited their investment
in training and skills development in recent years due to uncertainty
over future contracts, it is essential to maintain and further
developed a skilled and competent Supply Chain. A Nuclear Skills
Passport is being developed, to align with the national Qualification
Credit Framework, and this will be a key tool in demonstrating
the competence levels of staff across the whole industry including
the Supply Chain.
19. Schools-A major factor in ensuring the supply of
new entrants into the nuclear industry is having an adequate pool
of STEM students. This must start in the schools and there have
been numerous studies into increasing the level of STEM teaching.
One particular initiative relevant to the nuclear industry is
the Energy Foresight programme being funded by the National Skills
Academy Nuclear (NSAN) and overseen by an NSAN industry steering
group. The aim of this programme is to provide a set of education
resources, including teacher training, for Keystage 4 that present
Radioactivity and related issues in personal and social context,
supporting the new science GCSE curriculum. The results of an
evaluation by the Open University of the Energy Foresight programme
showed that overall more students were being attracted to science
subjects and, in particular, there was a positive opinion shift
in the attitude of girls about working with radioactive materials.
The nuclear industry is also supporting Energy Foresight through
provision of school ambassadors.
20. Universities-Universities can assist in the provision
of skills through provision of relevant course and providing students
with opportunities for placements in the nuclear industry. Traditionally
there have not been any specific nuclear engineering first degree
courses, although some Universities have provided nuclear related
modules. Graduate nuclear education has, in the main been provided
through post-graduate courses. In response to increased demand,
two Universities have started Nuclear Engineering degrees. Universities
also provide a range of related MSc courses and 11 Universities/Higher
Education Institute Departments have collaborated to form he Nuclear
Technology Education Consortium to deliver MSC courses across
the breadth of the nuclear industry. The programmes have been
developed in consultation with industry. University research department
also conduct some of the essential research work needed by the
nuclear industry.
21. Professional Bodies-Engineering Institutions, Learned
Societies (such as the British Nuclear Energy Society) and the
Engineering Council UK play major role in ensuring that the standards
of Chartered and Engineering Technician engineers are maintained.
The institutes and Learned Societies also facilitate some of the
continuing professional development the nuclear SET workforce
through their professional journals and through the organisation
of conferences and seminars, which enables the spreading of best
practice awareness of changes happening within the nuclear industry
and its engineering processes. Accreditation and approval of education
and training course by Institutions also ensures the relevance
to the nuclear industry is maintained.
22. Sector Skills Councils (SSCs)-SSCs and the Skills
for Business Network enables the skills need across the nuclear
industry to be articulated to Government, skills agencies, qualification
authorities, educational institutions and training providers.
Cogent SSC signed a Sector Skills Agreement SSA with the nuclear
industry, Government, Trades Unions and other stakeholders in
2006 identifying the skill gaps and solutions for resolution of
shortages. Cogent SSC, in conjunction with the National Skills
Academy Nuclear, is now implementing the SSA solutions and other
to provide the skills required by the nuclear industry. A key
problem for SSCs is accurate modelling of the situation. For example,
on one side there is the individuals' circumstances and on the
other there are strategic decisions on how many nuclear power
stations may be built an where they will be sited. An example
of the former is that many employees have pension agreements that
allows retirement at 60 years of age, while recent age discrimination
legislation allows them to be more flexible in when they will
leave the industry. The latter issue will come out of the industries
response to the ability to build new nuclear power stations and
how this translates to the particular regional skills shortage.
Cogent SSC is working with Government to sign a Sector Compact
which will articulate the nuclear industry training requirements
and get an agreement for funding of specific training activities.
As part of the Sector Compact, Cogent SSC, on behalf of the nuclear
industry, are making the case to extend the "Train to Gain"
scheme to make it more applicable to the higher skills levels
required by this science based industry.
23. Trades Unions-As noted in paragraph 20, the Trades
Unions have been supportive of the need to train, upskill and
reskill the workforce and Cogent SSC is aware of the UnionLearn
own initiatives that supplement the employer training programmes.
The Unions have a key role in ensuring effective implementation
of all the Skills Initiatives developed by both Cogent and the
NSAN and are on the Boards of both organisations. They also have
a place on all the NSAN working groups, with a lead on the development
of the "Worker Trainer" Programme.
24. Government-The skills issue has been recognised across
central Government Departments Regional Agencies and there are
many examples of studies into either the particular needs of the
nuclear industry or the more general provision of STEM capable
people through funded initiatives in schools, apprenticeships,
Further and Higher Education institutions and research. Government's
role is essential to provide the funding necessary to ensure the
success of the nuclear industry through the provision of the right
level of skills. This includes having a flexible response to funding
training and education initiatives required by strategic industries.
Some Regional Development Agencies, such as NWDA, have made significant
investments into the establishment of the NSAN and there is a
need for this support to be continued across the RDA network.
25. With much of the nuclear industry focussed on the
decommissioning of legacy plants, the Government also has a role
in providing a consistent level of funding to the NDA to enable
sites to plan ahead with certainly and thus provide a the platform
for succession and career planning for individuals within he industry,
including the supply chain. Without this, recruitment, initial
training and upskilling will not be possible for the decommissioning
sector of the nuclear industry and its supply chain. The power
generation sector of the nuclear industry is also readily affected
by changes Government policy which can affect their profitability,
with consequent impact on short term training programmes for their
employees. Reductions in profits can also impact on contractors
and reduction in the supply chain skill base.
CONCLUSION
26. There are skill gaps within the nuclear industry
and the industry average age profile is skewed towards the higher
age bracket. In addition there are some specific shortages in
defined employment areas (such as HSE inspectors) and in some
essential specialist disciplines (such as Safety Case Specialists).
Skills initiatives and their associated funding must be maintained
to ensure that sufficient qualified and experienced people are
available to support all aspects of the nuclear industry.
27. The competition from national and international projects
has the potential to lead to shortages in nuclear specialists
and those conventional skills that are required to support the
UK decommissioning and new build programme.
28. Positive action is being taken by industry, in conjunction
with Cogent Sector Skills Council, the National Skills Academy
for Nuclear and other bodies, to improve the situation and regularly
update the background data on which skills planning and the associated
training provision is based.
29. The support of Government is vital in sustaining
the skills base, through provision of funding and legislative
action.
March 2008
| 
