DNO 513 - Career Switchers

Destination Nuclear is a pioneering, sector-funded campaign and website promoting careers in the UK nuclear industry. It aims to recruit 40,000 people by 2030, addressing skills shortages, reshaping perceptions, and supporting clean energy and defence.

The Nuclear Bursary Scheme is a core element of the Nuclear Skills Plan (NSP). Its purpose is to provide support to talented individuals, particularly from lower socio-economic backgrounds, enabling them to access funding for education and/or wider professional development, with the aim of securing roles in the UK nuclear sector. A bursary of up to £5K per year can be granted for up to 20 bursaries.

The Sponsorship Scheme is designed to address the pressing need for skilled professionals within the nuclear sector, encompassing both civil and defence applications. Recognising the significant demand for degree-educated individuals in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines, and the current under-representation among those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, this initiative aims to foster social mobility while fulfilling critical workforce requirements. This is through offering comprehensive support, including full funding for tuition fees, summer placements, additional bursaries, and guaranteed job placement upon degree completion.

This project creates a national framework to integrate nuclear sector experts into training programmes, enhancing relevance and quality. It supports expert engagement without leaving operational roles, fostering industry-aligned skills development and incentivising workforce retention across the sector.

The Career Switchers Programme is a key initiative within the Nuclear Skills Plan (NSP), designed to attract, prepare, and accelerate mid-career professionals into critical nuclear sector roles. The programme targets occupations experiencing skills shortages across both civil and defence nuclear domains. By offering structured pathways, accelerator courses, and support mechanisms, it seeks to build a flexible, capable, and sustainable workforce.

This project delivers a dynamic model to forecast nuclear sector skills needs, integrating workforce demand with training supply. It enables strategic planning, real-time gap analysis, and data-driven decisions through periodic reports and a live analytical tool.

The project supports the Nuclear Skills Plan by analysing and refining role profiles, career pathways, and curricula. It involves stakeholder engagement, data capture, and strategic planning to address critical skills gaps and aligns workforce development with industry needs.

A coordinated, scalable training provider network in support of the Nuclear Skills Plan, bridging sector skills gaps by aligning industry investment to provider needs, and fostering partnerships to ensure sustainable workforce development across the nuclear sector.

This project establishes a teacher training and bursary programme to build a qualified nuclear education workforce, standardise training quality, foster industry partnerships, and ensure long-term sector sustainability through professional development, addressing critical skills shortages and supporting strategic workforce planning.