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Working to lead the future

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Published: 31 Jan 2025

The CQI’s Nuclear special interest group has its own Nuclear Next Generation group, focused on attracting the next generation of quality professionals into the industry. Learn more about the group, its work, and what it has to offer young nuclear professionals.

Attracting new talent into the quality profession is an issue across all sectors and industries, requiring teamwork and creative solutions to meet the challenge. The CQI’s Nuclear special interest group (NucSIG) has its own Nuclear Next Generation (NNG) group working to tackle the problem in a twofold way.

By its very existence, the NNG addresses the challenge of making careers in both nuclear and quality attractive by uniting younger, like-minded individuals in the sector.

Beyond supporting the next generation of quality professionals as they embark on or transition into nuclear careers, the NNG is looking even further to the future by promoting science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) learning for school and college students.

STEM focus

The NNG is developing a series of STEM-related activities, tailored to different age groups, to highlight the role of quality to school-aged students.

Tom Hocking, who works in the quality team at Sellafield in Cumbria, explains: “The aim is to attract the younger generation through schools and colleges. Not many people have an awareness of quality – either what it is or its future career potential. So, we [in the NNG] decided to develop a series of STEM activities related to quality.

“We want to get as many of these activity packs as possible published on the stem.org website, so that any CQI member could pick up one of our packs and go into schools and deliver it.

“We have developed a pack on quality planning, which involves building a spaghetti tower. The children work in groups, and have five minutes to build the best and most stable tower with 10 pieces of spaghetti, 30cm of Sellotape, 100cm of string and one marshmallow!”

All the activities being developed by the NNG will involve a fun and engaging activity that has quality at its heart, giving a real-life example of how to achieve a ‘right first time’ outcome.

“Some activities are suited to older students, but others can be tailored for younger demographics, including primary age,” says Shauna Davis CQP MCQI, Quality and Beyond Excellence Manager at Jacobs.

“Reaching younger audiences helps us grow both the quality profession and the nuclear sector. Developing these activities is interesting, but can be challenging, as our job roles don’t easily capture children’s attention.”

"We want people to join us, not just because it is the right thing to do for the longevity of the profession, but also because it is a really good team to be a part of to drive things forward."

Emma Willis PCQI, Senior Quality Manager at Mott MacDonald

James Brown CQP MCQI is Vice-Chair of the NucSIG,and is working with the NNG to develop both its STEM activities and its own profile.

“The STEM activity packs are trying to tie in all the different aspects of a quality perspective – communication, customer satisfaction, teamwork, and more,” he says. “Tom and Shauna have developed a number of these areas where we can provide an introduction to quality, which can then be tailored to suit different school ages.”

Leading so others may follow

The NNG was launched around six years ago. “The CQI asked me if I wanted to come on board to interface with the next generation and try to create something that was going to be awe-inspiring,” Brown explains. “There were hurdles to go through, both from a CQI and industry perspective, and we’ve had a few changes in personnel in the group as well.”

“[The group is] volunteered time, and that is probably our biggest challenge, because work and everyday life also need to happen,” says Victoria Derbyshire, CQP MCQI, Quality Manager, Civil Decommissioning and Defence, at Cavendish Nuclear. “Covid also gave us some constraints – we actually did our launch event during the pandemic; originally, it was going to be an in-person event and it ended up being online.”

The group is, in some ways, a victim of its own reason for being – as members progress in their careers (and get older), they naturally leave the group. Ensuring a constant stream of new members is essential for success.

“It is a really great team to be a part of, with our passion and enthusiasm – and even that little bit of ‘bonkers-ness’,” says Emma Willis PCQI, Senior Quality Manager at Mott MacDonald. “We want people to join us, not just because it is the right thing to do for the longevity of the profession, but also because it is a really good team to be a part of to drive things forward.”

Among the NNG's plans for the year is its aim to support a NucSIG revision of the Nuclear Quality Knowledge (NQK), to make the document next-generation friendly and appropriate. The group is also working towards the production of a quality smart application containing SIG literature, including the revised NQK.

Find out more and get involved!

To find out more, get involved in NNG activities or join the CQI NucSIG NNG to keep in the loop on all activities, click on the link below. 

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