An experienced team of experts and highly committed participants has gathered in Trieste, Italy, to take part in the 12th Nuclear Knowledge Management (NKM) School. The week-long school is jointly organized by the IAEA and the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), and aims to giving participants an opportunity to learn how the nuclear sector manages its core asset – knowledge. Attendees are new graduates and young professionals from different organizations in the nuclear field: nuclear power plants, regulatory bodies, universities, research and development organizations, and nuclear medicine departments in hospitals.
The NKM School is delivered using a modality known as 'blended learning': a pre-training course must be completed several months in advance through the IAEA e-learning platform CLP4NET. Of the total 222 applicants, 108 successfully completed the online pre-training, and of these, 35 participants from 26 countries were selected to attend this year's school in Trieste, Italy. The online pre-training ensures that the applicants develop a common understanding of the basics of nuclear knowledge management beforehand. This enables them to build their knowledge base, and to participate more actively in the face-to-face part of the course. In order to reinforce the knowledge acquired through the lectures, exercises, and practical examples, the students work together during the week to complete a final group project, which is presented and evaluated during the last day.
Participants in the school develop skills that will enable them to collaborate in successfully implementing knowledge management projects in their home organizations. They also make contact with other members of the nuclear industry. The networks formed at the school are an important source of knowledge and support for young professionals tackling the implementation of their first knowledge management projects.
Ms. Ana Raffo Caiado, Director of the IAEA's Division of Programme Support and Coordination visited the class on the last day of the school. She delivered an informative presentation on TC projects and activities, providing further valuable insights for participants.
The number of applications to the Nuclear Knowledge Management School has grown steadily over the years, as has awareness of the importance of a more systemic and integrated approach to protect critical knowledge assets and increase the nuclear knowledge base. The 2016 edition of the NKM School had a remarkable characteristic: 46% of the selected participants were women. This is the highest level of female participation in the history of the school. Achieving near gender parity is worth mentioning in the nuclear field, even bearing the school's conscious selection criteria in mind, which takes into consideration gender balance and the added value of cultural diversity.
