The nuclear vitality firm Framatome will make investments $400,000 over 4 years to relaunch its Nuclear Know-how Academy, a collaboration with Central Virginia Group Faculty to coach college students to turn into nuclear technicians.
By way of this system, college students can earn an affiliate of utilized science diploma in nuclear expertise with a mechatronics observe. They’ll cut up their time between the classroom and dealing at Framatome whereas incomes full-time pay with advantages, mentioned Craig Ranson, senior vice chairman of the Put in Base Enterprise Unit at Framatome.
The Framatome Nuclear Know-how Academy has been working because it initially launched in 2004. However this system beforehand was restricted to present Framatome workers and now’s open to all college students, CVCC President John Capps mentioned.
Ranson mentioned this system has been reworked to higher stability college students’ classroom time and on-the-job time, to supply college students extra aggressive pay, and to supply graduates alternatives for full-time, quite than part-time, jobs at Framatome.
“These college students have the chance to come back out fully debt-free with a job. And that’s superior,” Ranson mentioned at a Thursday information convention asserting the relaunched program.
Framatome, which was referred to as Areva earlier than it rebranded in 2018, is a France-based firm that employs greater than 16,000 folks worldwide, together with 1,320 in Lynchburg, the positioning of its North American headquarters.
Framatome designs and maintains giant nuclear reactors, offering management programs and different gear, gasoline and upkeep companies. Along with servicing current nuclear reactors across the globe, its present tasks embody constructing the 2 European pressurized water reactors for the three,200-megawatt Hinkley Level C nuclear energy station below building in Somerset, England.
Framatome says it modernized its program with CVCC as a result of it expects the demand for expert nuclear technicians to extend to fulfill U.S. and worldwide vitality wants.
Katherine Williams, Framatome’s chief monetary officer who will turn into its CEO on July 1, mentioned Thursday the nuclear trade provides “great alternatives.”
“We’re giving younger folks the chance to make a distinction, to assist us maintain the lights on, to assist us assist North America develop, and even internationally,” Williams mentioned. “Now we have the expertise. We merely want the workforce, the assets, people who find themselves dedicated and are prepared to take the time by way of this program to get educated, after which we are going to take it from there and provide you with a number of alternatives.”
The Framatome Nuclear Know-how Academy may have 30 college students in its fall cohort, and Ranson mentioned officers hope to have 30 college students in this system always.
Graduates who turn into nuclear technicians may carry out work equivalent to non-destructive examination of nuclear supplies, supplying nuclear reactors with gasoline, and upkeep and upgrades at nuclear energy crops, Ranson mentioned.
A job posting for a Framatome Nuclear Know-how Academy Technician, accessible by way of Framatome’s web site, lists the beginning pay at $20 per hour, with advantages and doable efficiency incentives or annual bonuses.
At Thursday’s information convention — which culminated in officers ceremonially reducing a ribbon that was held in place by two robotic arms — Capps praised the robust relationship between the college and Framatome.
“The importance of that relationship is mirrored in CVCC’s nuclear expertise diploma, the one diploma of its kind within the state of Virginia,” Capps mentioned. “It’s mirrored in the truth that the faculty has educated over 100 nuclear help technicians whom Framatome has deployed worldwide.”
The information convention was held at CVCC’s Framatome Know-how Middle, and Capps famous that Framatome had secured the naming rights to the constructing, which opened in 2004, by way of a donation of $1 million — the biggest in CVCC’s historical past.
Framatome’s help of the college continues to the current day, Capps mentioned.
“In the end, it underscores Framatome’s dedication to secure and economical low-carbon vitality, the kind of clear, sustainable vitality that our nation and our world desperately want,” he mentioned.