Program prepares U.K. students for nuclear careers

Dream Placement 2023 students Macy (left) and Sophie show their poster on geological disposal facilities. (Photo: NWS)

A Lego model of a geological disposal facility that was made for NWS Dream Placement 2023 is shown by its creator, Andrew (right), who poses with his teammate Addison. (Photo: NWS)

2022 Dream Placement students Libby (left) and Teddy both subsequently became NWS apprentices. (Photo: NWS)

The experience was part of the Dream Placement program, which is run by the Center for Leadership Performance, a nonprofit that works in partnership with local businesses and schools in the county of Cumbria in northwestern England to promote the development of leadership skills in young people and facilitate dialogue and relationships between them and businesses. Over the years, the center said it has “built positive and enduring relationships that connect these stakeholders and promote collaborative action to develop Cumbria’s leaders for today and tomorrow.”

Dream Placement is a free six-month leadership development initiative designed for those between the ages of 16 and 18 who live or receive their education in Cumbria. Launched in 2013, it serves as a way for students to learn about potential careers and for local employers to shape the skills of their future workforce.

According to Nicola Woolley, the center’s secondary program manager, “Dream Placement was co-created with a group of businesses who had been working with the center through its leadership masterclasses and other programs. The businesses wanted a way to work with potential future employees and retain talent in Cumbria, showcasing the opportunities available here.”

Each year, certain participants are selected for weeklong placements during February at different industrial settings in the county. The nuclear industry is just one of many industries involved.

This is the fourth year that NWS has participated in the program. “NWS first supported Dream Placement in 2022,” according to Thomas Hogan, a communications graduate who works with the external communications team at NWS. He told Nuclear News, “The ability to support young people in the area with a facilitated work experience program introduces NWS to students in the area, and the students to career opportunities they might not normally come across. As our nuclear ambitions develop here in the U.K., there is a recognition of a future skills shortage in the industry as more jobs in nuclear open up. We now have a very real need to attract more young people into the nuclear sector, and more specifically, the nuclear waste services sector.”

According to Hogan, 20 percent of the students who have attended Dream Placement events at NWS since 2022 “are currently active apprentices until 2027, when those who joined in 2022 are set to complete their five-year apprenticeship.” In addition, four of the five student participants this year secured internships with NWS over the summer break.

The Energy Coast

The coast of Cumbria hosts Sellafield, the U.K.’s single largest concentration of nuclear facilities. Hogan explained, “West Cumbria is referred to as ‘Britain’s Energy Coast’ due to its significant role in the U.K.’s energy sector, particularly in nuclear waste management and disposal. The region is home to many major nuclear facilities, most notably the Sellafield site, which is one of Europe’s most complex and important nuclear sites.”

West Cumbria was the site of the world’s first commercial-scale nuclear power station, Calder Hall, which opened in 1956. Formerly known as Windscale-Calder Hall, today the Sellafield site is owned by the NDA and hosts several nuclear waste reprocessing and storage facilities. It is also home to the U.K. National Nuclear Laboratory’s headquarters and Central Lab, which supports nuclear innovation and research. NWS’s Low-Level Waste Repository is in nearby Drigg.

Beyond nuclear, some of the country’s largest offshore wind developments are in the Irish Sea just off the Cumbrian coast. Key infrastructure like the Port of Workington and Barrow Shipyard and an active supply chain supporting everything from clean fuels to advanced engineering help position Cumbria as a main energy hub for the U.K.

Dealing with waste

Nuclear energy has been part of the U.K.’s energy mix for more than 70 years and currently meets about 15 percent of the nation’s electricity needs. The resulting radioactive waste must be managed, of course, and NWS was established for this purpose in 2022. By combining the NDA’s Integrated Waste Management Program with LLW Repository Ltd. and Radioactive Waste Management Ltd., a team of around 900 people was formed whose skills cover nuclear science, technology, engineering, safety, security, program management, environmental protection, and community engagement. NWS was then subsumed into NDA as a wholly owned subsidiary.

NWS focuses on recycling and reusing nuclear waste. It has reversed the trend of disposing of 95 percent of nuclear waste and now sends only 2 percent for disposal, with 98 percent being recycled or reused. “Waste is only disposed if it cannot be used in alternative ways,” according to NWS. “We use a ‘waste hierarchy’ in all of our waste management activities to better characterize materials and identify ways to avoid creating waste. We also identify new opportunities to reuse or recycle materials and physically reduce the volume of the remaining waste.”

For byproducts that cannot be otherwise used, NWS uses a repository in Cumbria that receives low-level solid waste from a range of customers, including the nuclear industry; the Ministry of Defense; nonnuclear industries; and educational, medical, and research establishments.

Dream Placement

Participants in NWS’s Dream Placement program came together this past March at the Energus Conference Center in Cumbria to celebrate the program’s success. From left, Cole, Elijah, Joseph, and Will received certificates of achievement. (Photo: NWS)

Since the inception of Dream Placement in 2013, the program has provided a total of 2,150 young applicants in Cumbria with leadership development opportunities, including 590 Dream Placement positions. In all, 90 different companies have participated in the program.

NWS CEO Martin Walkingshaw explained the company’s involvement in Dream Placement: “We are delighted to be involved in its widening participation,” he said of the program. “Over the years, we have seen many young individuals who have been involved in Dream Placement being successful in gaining apprenticeships and joining the industry. To be able to widen this offer of early career experience to more students in the local area is an exciting prospect and we look forward to seeing the program grow.”

Sarah Glass, executive director of the Center for Leadership Performance, added, “The new longer-term strategic support means we can widen participation still further and provide fair access by encouraging and supporting hard-to-reach groups of young people who may be reluctant to take part and have low levels of aspiration, perhaps believing the program is ‘not for them.’”

Dream Placement benefits local businesses by connecting them to motivated young Cumbrians. The Center for Leadership Performance also advertises participating companies’ apprenticeship opportunities to more than 1,600 Dream Placement alumni, providing the companies with access to a pool of trained talent.

For participating students, the program has numerous benefits, including increased confidence, improved understanding of their own values and strengths, inspiration to set goals, greater awareness of different careers, opportunities to listen to the views of others, and motivation to help others succeed. It also fosters the development of professional skills like communication, adaptability, teamwork, listening, presenting, observing, independent working, professionalism, discipline, and organization.

According to the center’s latest Impact Report, which covers the period from April 2024 to March 2025, the Dream Placement program saw 230 young people participate in four online development sessions with 30 host companies. Of those individuals, 120 were invited to the selection event, and 75 students were offered placements with the host companies. Seventy students participated in a weeklong placement with a local company in February 2025.

Student experiences

During their week of Dream Placement at NWS in February, five participating teenagers from high schools throughout Cumbria were assigned a variety of learning activities. “They met with and heard talks from experienced NWS teams and learned about the nationally important work of NWS to make waste permanently safe sooner,” said Tracy Badham, NWS social responsibility manager. “They also took part in group exercises and visited the Low-Level Waste Repository in West Cumbria.”

She added, “We trust that the students were able to take away skills such as leadership, teamwork, problem-solving, and data analysis. NWS also offered tips on career choices, job interview techniques, and how to write a CV.”

The students were also asked to create a lesson and activity for 11- to ­12-year-olds about energy, waste, and the environment. The lesson needed to be linked to both NWS functions and the U.K. national curriculum, and project outcomes had to be usable by NWS as an educational resource in its STEM outreach.

Badham explained, “After hearing pitches from the students about different subjects, we took one of the ideas, a waste recycling–based game, and the students created the activity for secondary school students. We realized that this activity would be a great opportunity to complement our work with primary school students, so we next adapted it for that level. The game was then produced as a hands-on resource to be used as part of the ‘Energy, Waste, and the Environment’ topic, which is part of U.K.’s year-5 school curriculum [for students aged 8 to 9].”

NWS employees were able to volunteer as they wished to help the Dream Placement participants. “We have been taking part in the Dream Placement program for four years,” Badham said, “and the students might come from schools where our staff live, so they see it as both an opportunity to volunteer with the youth and local community and to learn from the students, who often see things from a different perspective.”

The Dream is just the beginning

NWS Dream Placement participants pose for the camera. From left, 2022 students Teddy and Libby; NWS’s Tracy Badham; and 2023 students Sophie, Andrew, Addison, and Macy. (Photo: NWS)

This year’s Dream Placement participants had an overwhelmingly positive experience, with 90 percent of the students saying they would highly recommend the program and 94 percent of employers saying that the program improved their connections to future talent. Four of this year’s five student participants received internships with specific departments in NWS over the summer months. Three were to be placed within the company’s waste services team and one within the environment team.

This is not uncommon: Several program participants over the years went on to apprenticeships at NWS. Teddy, an apprentice who was a 2022 Dream Placement student, spoke highly of his experience. “My placement week at NWS was a turning point in my decision to pursue a degree apprenticeship with the organization,” he said. “Experiencing such a positive working environment at just 16 was incredibly valuable. Without this experience, I might not have considered entering a professional setting after sixth form.” (In the U.K, “sixth form” refers to the final two years of secondary education. This is the time when students prepare for their A-level exams—an important step toward their university education.)

Macy, another apprentice who did her Dream Placement in 2023, said, “Upon starting sixth form I knew I wanted to pursue a degree; however, university life just didn’t appeal. Before Dream Placement, I had never actually heard of NWS or knew of the post-A-level opportunities they had to offer. After an amazing insight into the working community of the company, it opened up my search for a degree apprenticeship further than my local area.”

Badham called the Dream Placement program “a wonderful opportunity for NWS colleagues to showcase our work to the younger generation, and it gives the students a chance to experience a wide range of departments across our business. Our aim is that we learn as much from the students during their week with us as they do from us.”

Paul Skelton, director of NWS’s Near Surface Disposal Delivery Program, said, “Every year we offer a different experience, ensuring that the NWS Dream Placement continues to evolve. . . . Most importantly, the project delivered by the students is something that actually helps us with our wider work in the community.” He praised NWS staff for their engagement with the students in the program. “We talk about the importance of being a good neighbor, and I hope to think that this is what being a good neighbor looks and feels like to the younger community.”

The Center for Leadership Performance will continue to help prepare young Cumbrians for their future careers through the Dream Placement program. The NWS’s Hogan said, “We have committed to the program for the next three years, as we believe this is a fantastic opportunity for young people to gain work experience in an area where the nuclear industry offers employment across a range of careers.”