The UK's Nuclear Skills Strategy Group's (NSSG), in its 2017 Nuclear Workforce Assessment (NWA) launched on 3 July, said the UK nuclear sector would require a workforce of over 100,000 by 2021, up from 87,560 in 2017.
According to the report, a workforce demand of 87,560 will grow to a peak demand of 100,610 in 2021. From 2016 to 2021, the industry will require an annual average inflow of 6,830 full-time-equivalent workers. However, these would not all necessarily be long-term appointments.
The NSSG is the industry-led strategic group, made up of employers, government and trade unions representing the civil nuclear and defence sectors. It is responsible for developing a nuclear skills strategy for the UK
The report notes that more than 80% of the nuclear workforce uses skills shared with other industries. Future bottlenecks are expected in a number of areas, including safety case preparation, control and instrumentation, reactor operation, site inspection, project planning and control, commissioning engineers, electrical engineers, concretors and steel fixers.
NSSG chairwoman Fiona Rayment, who is also director of the UK National Nuclear Laboratory, said “An evidence-based understanding of the skills required, and by when, is fundamentally important to developing a skills pipeline to meet the sectors’ skills requirements."
She added that the data "supports employer decisions around investment in training and apprenticeships, as well as education providers to plan and build capacity and capability where it is needed.”
