The WINS Academy Nuclear Security Certification Programme

Numerous professions, such as medicine, engineering and aviation require that their employees be demonstrably competent and professionally certified to do their jobs. In the nuclear industry, many of the accountants, engineers and safety professionals belong to chartered institutes that certify their members’ competence on an ongoing basis. The same cannot be said, however, for most professionals with senior managerial or regulatory responsibilities relating to nuclear security. A number of States have recognised this gap and have begun to support the need for certified professional development for nuclear security. This new focus is of essential importance, because almost all systems rely on the effectiveness of human performance. To help the international community meet this need for demonstrably competent personnel, WINS has launched the Academy: a certified professional development programme designed in partnership with Pearson, the world’s largest education provider. We are currently working with subject matter experts to develop and peer review a series of Modules that make up an online programme, centred on a core Foundation Module that sets out security as a strategic, operational activity to be implemented across the organisation and as a fundamental aspect of risk management and corporate reputation. Implementing such a programme requires the collaboration of a number of key organisational roles and we are developing eight Elective Modules to choose from. The first Elective, already developed, is for Scientists, Technicians and Engineers and is of direct interest to the INMM community. The Module identifies the potential security threats that scientists and engineers face and their contributions to the security programme through improved culture, communications, performance and reliability. Each Module will take about 40-60 hours of online study to complete and will culminate in a certification test available at over 6,000 accredited test centres in 177 countries. WINS launched the first training Modules to coincide with the Nuclear Security Summit that took place in the Netherlands in March 2014 and will complete the rollout by the end of 2014. WINS will therefore support the Summit objectives of helping ensure that personnel with accountabilities for security are demonstrably competent through selection, training and certification.