As Apprenticeship Week gets underway on 6 February, 80 EDF Nuclear second year apprentices have faced their biggest challenge to date by coming face to face with the engineering of HMS Alliance, the only surviving A Class WW2 era submarine left in the UK based at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport, Hampshire. The apprentices through working alongside retired submariners based at the Submarine Museum have gone well beyond a standard engineering apprenticeship framework both in what the learners set out to achieve and the means through which they reach their goals.
The young apprentices of today have been carefully paired with the submariners to develop comprehensive maintenance schedules for various systems within the diesel powered submarine, HMS Alliance. This project is regarded as one of the best examples in the country of the rigour, scope and skill that form the very best modern vocational training in the UK.
Alex Khan, Managing Director for Babcock Education and Training: “Working in partnership with EDF Energy and the Royal Navy Submarine Museum enables us to train apprentices to a level that is exceptional. The HMS Alliance challenge is part of a number of activities that open up new avenues of learning above and beyond a standard apprenticeship - in technical training as well as team working, leadership and management. The skills that they have attained through this project will serve the learners and the power stations that they work for to meet immediate business needs and further challenges, long into the future."
Bill Sainsbury, Marketing Manager at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum said, “This has been a great opportunity for our retired submariners to pass on their knowledge and skills from a past age.”
The students have studied HMS Alliance and looked at five engineering systems including propulsion, hydroplanes, snort and air circulation and two sets of torpedoes: conventional forward and “nuclear” aft. As HMS Alliance is typical of a diesel-electric boat (pre Nuclear), the apprentices who are embryonic nuclear professionals, simulated them for the purposes of introducing EDF safety regimes.
The Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport, Hampshire is home to HMS Alliance, Holland 1, the first Royal Navy submarine launched in 1901 and the X24 the only surviving British midget submarine from WW2. The museum is open to visitors. For more information on a visit to the Royal Navy Submarine Museum visit www.submarine-museum.co.uk or call 023 92510354.
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