Renewing skills and integrating new generations

The French nuclear industry is made up of 2500 enterprises of any size from family businesses to large groups via medium-sized enterprises and start-ups. In order to face new projects and to ensure the continuity and preservation of technical know-how and to develop skills, nuclear industry as any high-tech industry invests a lot of money in training. In 2017 the needs of training for EDF, AREVA and CEA employees summed up to 370 million euros representing 4.5 millions hours of technical training. In CEA, EDF and AREVA, colleges of experts have been created. For instance the knowledge of EDF experts specialised in the design of the first generation of reactors is very useful to prepare the dismantling of these reactors. In CEA, an average of 15 years are necessary to train an expert and 4 levels of expertise have been defined. AREVA has implemented in its staff management a tool to detect the risk of losing a specific skill and to prevent this loss by a provisional policy of recruitment. (A.C.)