Mark your diary for NESTet 2011!

The first ENS conference dedicated to nuclear education and training, called NESTet, took place in May 2008 in Budapest, Hungary. It attracted over 130 participants from 29 countries.

Nestet  2011 will take place from 15 – 18 May 2011 in Prague. It is planned as a back-to-back event with the European Nuclear Young Generation Forum (ENYGF) which will take place from 17. – 22.5.2011 at the same venue.

NESTet is designed to facilitate an exchange of information and the sharing of best practice. It is an important networking opportunity for better co-ordination and collaboration between different stakeholders in nuclear education.
The NESTet Programme will feature the following topics:

• What are the needs with regard to nuclear education and training? Representatives from industry, regulators, safety authorities and research institutions will provide insight on skills and profiles required to ensure an efficiently and safely performing nuclear sector.

• What are the answers that help to close the gap? This is all about sharing best practice and examples of co-operation between different stakeholders and about training and education programmes that are able to cover needs.  

• Where are efforts on harmonisation needed? Harmonisation is part of effective strategies for nuclear education and training. A range of well-known initiatives have been launched especially at university level and many of them have been discussed at NESTet 2008. Other areas still need attention and will be presented at this edition of NESTet.

• How to increase the motivation of people to choose a career in nuclear? How to attract young people to the nuclear sector? How to encourage skilled professionals with general engineering or project management competence to join the nuclear sector? What do stakeholders offer to different levels from undergraduate to PdD and how do they integrate education and training in a career path?

• What is the situation with regard to infrastructure and tools for nuclear education and training? This session will look at questions like: How can we overcome bottlenecks where the required infrastructure is not available in sufficient quantity and quality? How can collaboration, sharing of facilities and new emerging tools ensure the provision of the required infrastructure? What is the role and importance of experimental facilities? How can we use new technologies for education and training (e-learning, simulators, virtual engineering…)?

• What role for international co-operation? The nuclear industry is operating worldwide; education is based on national systems. Key stakeholders will give insight how we can ensure highly skilled staff in all countries operating nuclear facilities and how we can learn from each other and get the best out of all systems.