Last updated at 10:40, Monday, 01 March 2010

Andrew King, Chief Executive Energus

AVID readers of my column will by now appreciate that ENERGUS is very much about enabling West Cumbria to boldly go where it has not gone before.

Part of this is our aspiration to become internationally recognised within the nuclear, carbon-free and environmental remediation industries through the development of partnerships with leading further and higher education providers – quite an ambition.

Well, ENERGUS is now directly dipping its toe into the international arena having been selected to present at the European Nuclear Conference in Barcelona in the first week of June; this is an excellent opportunity for us to get the ENERGUS name and partnership model out to a wider audience.

Coincidentally, one of our industry partners, the NDA, will also be at the same conference presenting its innovative and highly successful graduate training programme – nucleargraduates – to the same audience.

Our combined presence on this international stage will serve well to make the international nuclear community aware of the good things happening here in West Cumbria.

Looking further to the future, nuclear new-build holds the potential for additional international opportunities for ENERGUS and its partners. We are all aware of the possibility of new reactors being constructed here in West Cumbria, but nuclear power is also a potential energy solution for other countries in the world, and particularly in the Middle and Far East. With any new build comes the need for trained workers (during build) and operators (post build); this in turn opens up potential new markets for those education and training organisations (or partnerships) that have the resources and ability to meet that need. I firmly believe that ENERGUS, with our world class facility at Lillyhall, is well placed to take advantage of these opportunities by working closely with its education and training delivery partners.

On the home-front we continue to act as an enabler and a facilitator of change. An example of one such initiative is the work we are doing in conjunction with Nuclear Management Partners and the Energy Coast Campus project, in the creation of a leadership centre based here in West Cumbria. We have already seen the first in a series of short courses and workshops designed to deliver business impact being provided by the University of Cumbria in the Blue Box here in ENERGUS. You can find details of the programme running over the next couple of months at www.cumbria.ac.uk/bluebox.

What bodes well for West Cumbria is that all the higher education institutions currently engaged within the region are working together, under the stewardship of NMP, on this integrated initiative, focused on developing leaders of the future, so key to underpinning the area’s economic growth. Likewise the inspirational development of Cockermouth School’s Science Skills Laboratory and Planetarium is yet another clear demonstration of West Cumbria’s commitment to the education and development of future young scientists for the local industry.

This month we were delighted to have been able to help bring this £4 million project a step closer to reality with a grant to help take the project to detailed planning and costing. It is very much these young scientists, together with the engineers and technologists of the future, who will deliver the Energy Coast skills vision and the platform for enhancing our growing international reputation.

ENERGUS will continue to set a course to boldly go where no-one has gone before!

First published at 15:40, Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk