The strategy to develop and implement a comprehensive training system should be established at an early stage (around eight years before the first fuel loading) of a new nuclear programme. This strategy will take as an input the necessity of human resources according to the staff planning (number of professionals and technicians needed to incorporate each year).

The first step in this strategy will be to analyse and identify the training needs; it will be very useful to organize different groups within the organiza­tion which will need a common initial training programme, for instance managers, engineers and instructors. These strategic groups will play an important role in the future nuclear project. These initial training pro­grammes are usually organized from the most generic (nuclear ‘indoctrina­tion’ courses) to the most specific according to the different training needs. The strategy to implement the training system will constitute an important section of the documentation usually submitted during the licensing process.

The training system, including the training organization and infrastruc­ture, must be fully completed and ready for implementation at least three years before the fuel loading in order to train the operation and mainte­nance plant staff. Meanwhile some initial training can be delivered using external expertise support if there is no national training organization avail­able. External support can be provided by the vendor (within the supply contract), international training organizations or training centres.