| Dounreay Index | |||
|
Dounreay |
|||
|
29 July
04 Scotland’s newest centre for teaching the skills needed to clean up the country’s nuclear heritage was officially opened today at Dounreay. Deputy Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Minister Lewis Macdonald visited the leading edge of Britain’s nuclear clean-up programme to set the seal on a £300,000 investment by UKAEA. The Learning, Education and Development (LEAD) Centre provides high-quality training and skills opportunities for employees of UKAEA and its contractors at Dounreay and other nuclear sites in the UK now being decommissioned. The LEAD Centre is the latest in the series of investments by the public and private sectors in the northern Highlands that is establishing the area’s reputation as a centre of excellence in skills and enterprise in nuclear decommissioning. Run by a team of 21 staff, the LEAD Centre provides a range of courses and development opportunities for decommissioning workers to expand their skills. Courses range from compulsory site induction to IT, project management, industrial and radiological safety and graduate development. UKAEA Dounreay director Norman Harrison said: “UKAEA has successfully decommissioned more of its country’s nuclear reactors than any other organisation in world and it is essential we continue to invest in the skills and education of our people if we are to maintain that leading international edge. “Restoring the environment of a site as complex as Dounreay is UKAEA’s biggest challenge yet. This investment underlines UKAEA’s commitment to establishing Dounreay and Caithness as the leading centre for training and development in the skills we need, not just here at Dounreay but throughout the UK as well.” During 2003/04, the LEAD Centre staff delivered over 6000 man-days of training, representing an average of five days training each for every employee at the site. The centre also works closely with the North Highland College/UHI Millennium Institute to provide further and higher education opportunities on a day-release and evening class basis. Lewis Macdonald, Deputy Minister for Enterprise, said: “I am delighted to have been asked to open Scotland’s newest training facility at Dounreay. The establishment of this Learning, Education and Development Centre will provide high quality training and skills opportunities for employees of UKAEA. “This continuing investment at the Dounreay site reflects confidence in the economic future of Caithness and particularly the significant business opportunities becoming available with expansion of the nuclear decommissioning sector. “To continue to build and maintain a skilled workforce we must ensure both adults and young people have the opportunities and encouragement to learn and develop throughout their lives, and I am glad that UKAEA have recognised this by providing training and development opportunities for their staff.”
Notes Decommissioning Dounreay is worth approximately £80 million a year to the economy of the Highlands in general and Caithness and north Sutherland in particular through nett salaries, pensions, contracts and sub-contracts. One in five jobs in Caithness and north Sutherland depend on decommissioning. Across Scotland, it accounts for 2,930 jobs. A former three-storey office block
known as D8538 has been converted to create the LEAD Centre. It replaces
the Dounreay Education and Training Centre, which is being demolished as
part of the decommissioning of the nearby PUMA criticality test cell. The
conversion work was carried out by |
|||
