The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

 
Retraining will assist the workforce in finding new careers

The NDA is investing millions of pounds to support the retraining of site workforces in regions that are particularly vulnerable to the impact of future closures.

Working in partnership with other local authority, business and training organisations, a range of initiatives are being implemented to assist staff seeking to acquire new skills, alternative career opportunities or setting up businesses.

Priority support is being targeted at regions where NDA sites dominate the local economy and there are few obvious alternatives for the displaced workers who will be affected in the years ahead. The funding is tailored to reflect the characteristics and needs of each region.

In Caithness, a £2.2 million programme has just been agreed to assist Dounreay staff and supply chain businesses in adjusting to the site's eventual closure. The NDA has contributed a sum of £808,875 while Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd will provide £100,000 per year over the three-year programme.

An estimated 2,000 jobs will disappear over the coming years both from the site itself and associated businesses as clean-up and demolition of the former research site nears completion.

Caithness Chamber of Commerce is leading the Make the Right Connections initiative to harness workforce expertise in the area, initially carrying out an audit of existing skills and business capabilities and then matching these with opportunities in new industry through retraining, business growth and marketing.

Cleaning up the Dounreay site accounts for more than 10% of the current GDP of the North Highlands, while many more businesses benefit indirectly from consumer spending.

Dounreay has reduced its workforce by approximately 300 in the last five years, to the current level of 900, and will continue to shrink as more of the site is cleaned up and demolished.

At Chapelcross in the Borders, meanwhile, the 300-strong workforce is set to drop by 80% over the next six years as the site approaches a phase of less intensive on-site activity before final site clearance.

The Beyond Chapelcross initiative, supported by £1.2 million from the NDA, is designed to strengthen and diversify the local business base and help members of the workforce to find alternative employment in the region.  It will be delivered by Magnox Ltd, in partnership with Dumfries and Galloway Council.

The initiative complements the existing Chapelcross Industry Park project – to which the NDA has committed £2.5 million – which will provide much-needed space for business start-ups. 

NDA funding will add significant value to existing schemes, including the Prince's Scottish Youth Trust Board (PSYBT) and Financial Assistance to Small Businesses (FSAB), and unlock the delivery of more than £1 million worth of local regeneration projects for the towns of Gretna, Annan and Lockerbie.

The scheme has the full support of local stakeholders, including MP David Mundell, who chairs the Corridor Regeneration Strategy (CoReS) Steering Group, and Scottish Enterprise. 

And in North Wales, the £4 million Shaping the Future initiative is already under way, helping many of the 1,200 staff of Trawsfynydd and Wylfa to prepare for life once the sites begin to wind down activities. Both sites are significant contributors to the regional economy of North West Wales.

With a £1.2 million NDA contribution and backed by the European Social Fund through the Welsh Assembly Government, the scheme will be delivered by project delivery organisation Menter Môn.

The aim is to harness skills mixes from both workforces and the local supply chain in order to retain experience, boost employment and generate new enterprise in the region.

Shaping the Future will offer one-to-one mentoring and the development of individual action plans to address skills gaps and regional need.

In addition, it will offer a programme to retrain and re-skill the workforce as well as help individuals into jobs or to start up their own ventures.

Clean-up bodies in jobs pledge

Representatives of the Caithness nuclear industry have signed a “socio-economics partnering charter” to improve employment prospects for workers whose jobs currently depend on Dounreay.

The NDA, contractor Babcock and the Site Licence Company Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd will work together to contribute to regeneration of the North Highlands as the nuclear site is decommissioned and jobs disappear.

The NDA spends about £150 million a year on work to clean up and close down Dounreay. About £80 million of this goes into the local economy in salaries, contracts and purchases.

"The work being carried out in this area is groundbreaking for the NDA,” said NDA Chief Executive Tony Fountain. “This approach, which will be a contractual requirement in the new PBO contract, ensures we make best use of our combined resources to focus on delivering socio-economic initiatives quickly and effectively.”

Representatives of the Caithness nuclear industry have signed a “socio-economics partnering charter” to improve employment prospects for workers whose jobs currently depend on Dounreay.

 
Tony Fountain, NDA Chief Executive, is pictured signing the charter, along with (from the left) Babcock Non-Executive Director Martin Austick, Ken Nicol, DSRL Socio Economic Manager, NDA Socio-Economic and Stakeholder Relations Manager Anna MacConnell and DSRL Managing Director Simon Middlemas.