JANUARY 2007

NUREG/BR-0164, Rev. 5

NRC–Regulator of 

Nuclear Safety

Office of Public Affairs

Protecting People and the Environment

UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

February 2007

Training and Development

Strategic Plan

Safety Through Knowledge

Office of Human Resources

Protecting People and the Environment

UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

NUREG/BR-0332

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Training and Development Strategic Plan

Table of Contents

Training Mission. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Training Vision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Goal 1: Individual Performance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Goal 2: Training Effectiveness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Goal 3: Training Efficiency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Goal 4: Organizational Performance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Endnotes.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Appendix A, The Leadership Journey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside Back Cover
.
1

NRC’s Strategic Plan Management Goal

 Ensure Excellence in Agency

Management to carry out the NRC’s

strategic objective.

Strategic Outcomes for the Management

Goal

Continuous improvement in

NRC’s leadership and

management effectiveness

in delivering the mission.

A diverse, skilled workforce and an

infrastructure that fully support the

agency’s mission and goals.

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Training and Development Strategic Plan

.

The purpose of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Training and Development

Strategic Plan is to implement an agencywide strategic and businesslike approach to training

and development activities. A strategic approach allows NRC to better establish priorities and

leverage investments in training and development to achieve agency results. Appropriate

investments in recruitment, training, development, and knowledge management will reward the

NRC with a highly skilled and diverse workforce prepared to address the challenges ahead.

The agency developed the goals and strategies in this plan within a framework of strategic

alignment and accountability that links to the fiscal year (FY) 2004–FY 2009 NRC Strategic

Plan, the NRC Strategic Human Capital and Workforce Restructuring Plan, the NRC’s 1 2

Comprehensive Diversity Management Plan, the President’s Management Agenda Leadership 3

and Knowledge Management Standards for Success, the NRC’s Strategic Workforce Planning 4

process, and the NRC’s Planning, Budgeting, and Performance Management (PBPM) 5

process. 

6

Employees and supervisors share the

responsibility to ensure that staff members

have the knowledge, skills, and

competencies to effectively perform their job

functions. Offices and regions support this

effort by defining knowledge, skills, and

competencies for job functions, identifying

training needs, establishing and maintaining

qualification programs, and ensuring that

staff members are adequately trained and

qualified to perform their assigned duties.

The NRC’s Strategic Plan outlines a

dynamic program of training, development,

knowledge transfer, and formal leadership

development programs as the means for

achieving the human capital strategies

employed to meet the Management Goal. 

The Human Resources Training and

Development (HRTD) organization designs,

develops, implements, and evaluates agencywide training, development, and knowledge

management programs, policies, and procedures and manages the Technical Training Center,

Professional Development Center, and associated capital assets. Training and development

programs support the NRC’s Strategic Plan goals of Safety, Security, Openness, Effectiveness,

and Management Excellence, by providing the knowledge and skills that the staff needs to

make safety and security decisions openly and effectively. 
2

In support of the NRC’s mission and goals, HRTD has the following mission:

To provide effective learning programs, resources, and services to enable the

NRC to acquire and maintain the competencies needed to accomplish the

agency’s mission.

In executing this mission, HRTD has the following vision:

To be a strategic leader, partner, and catalyst for the NRC to engage in continuous

learning and professional development to achieve individual and organizational

excellence.

In support of the agency’s safety mission, HRTD will work closely with the NRC offices and

regions to ensure that the training goals and strategies outlined in this plan are incorporated

into organizational decisionmaking and aligned with organizational goals and culture to achieve

the Management Goal strategic outcomes. The agency’s employees are its most valuable

asset and are the primary stakeholders in the training and development opportunities that the

agency provides for them. The NRC wants to provide employees with the training and

development needed to succeed in their current positions and to prepare them for future

agency needs. Acquiring, developing, and sustaining the agency’s highly skilled and diverse

workforce will be an ongoing challenge in the face of continued employee retirements and the

increasing number of new staff hired to support new agency work. 

The NRC will work to maintain a diverse, high-performing workforce with the skills needed to

achieve the agency’s mission by focusing on the following Training and Development goals.

The Office of Human Resources (HR) Operating Plan and office operating plans, as

appropriate, will include specific activities to achieve these goals and continue to employ HR,

office-level, and agencywide metrics to measure results.

.
3

NRC Comprehensive Diversity 

Management Plan

Goal 2—Develop and retain diverse employees.

Goal 1: Individual Performance—Ensure that training and development opportunities

enhance individual performance and support continuous learning at all levels.

Strategies:

1. Provide a comprehensive, competency-based, integrated system for employee training

and development.

2. Establish and implement documented training and qualification programs for positions

and functions, as appropriate, to ensure that employees have the knowledge and skills

necessary to meet performance expectations.

3. Link training and development courses and programs to job skills and competencies.

4. Encourage the use of individual development plans (IDPs) to guide individual training and

development activities.

The changing NRC workforce profile requires the matching of organizational needs with the

appropriate mix and level of staff skills and competencies. To this end, the agency must

formally define competencies and

training needs for major functions or

groups of like positions. Understanding

the developmental needs of the

workforce also contributes to the

agency’s ability to better meet the

diverse needs of all employees.

The agency has some aspects of a

comprehensive, competency-based,

integrated system of training and development. Examples include formal qualification and

development programs, performance elements and standards, position descriptions, training

needs surveys, and the strategic workforce planning system. Better integration of these

elements will assist employees in becoming proactive participants in their own development.

The agency has some established formal processes that aid in workforce development such as

the inspector and license reviewer qualification programs, the Nuclear Safety Professional

Development Program, and the Acquisition Certification and Training Program. These

programs can serve as models for establishing more formal training guidelines for other agency

positions and functions. The agency will identify the knowledge, skills, and competencies for

positions and functions necessary to implement the NRC Strategic Plan and link training

courses and programs to these knowledge, skills, and competencies. The NRC will also

identify individual training and development opportunities through a comprehensive catalog of

in-house and external training courses and programs to help meet the unique and diverse

needs of NRC employees.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is responsible for providing human capital advice

and leadership for Federal agencies and delivering associated human resources policies,

products, and services. OPM has identified 28 competencies necessary for effective leadership
4

and has stratified these competencies by leadership level (Core–Managing Self, Project

Manager/Team Leader–Managing Projects, Supervisor–Managing People, Manager–Managing

Programs, and Executive–Leading Organizations). Half of the competencies are designated for

managing self and managing projects and are applicable to nearly all agency employees.

Therefore, as the agency develops and updates its training courses, programs, and individual

training and development plans, it will consider the appropriate OPM competencies for

management and staff. (Refer to Appendix A, The Leadership Journey.)

IDPs are written schedules or plans designed to meet employees’ development goals.

Employees and supervisors can use IDPs to plan learning opportunities such as training

courses, rotational assignments, special projects, self-study, and on-the-job training. IDPs help

employees set reasonable goals, assess their strengths, identify areas for development, and

chart where they can best contribute and grow. Using IDPs is a systematic way of planning for

training and gaining experience that develops the specific skills and knowledge needed for

current or future jobs. IDPs give both employees and their supervisors the opportunity to set

objectives and plan developmental experiences that will support these objectives. 

Supervisors will encourage the use of IDPs for their staff to ensure that individual training and

development activities contribute to achieving job performance goals. Better definition of the

required competencies and training options for the employee’s current position, as well as

expectations for continuing development, assist the employee and the organization in meeting

performance goals.
5

“The primary purpose of Strategic W orkforce

Planning is to support human resources

allocation decisions around the Commission's

Planning, Budgeting, and Performance

Management process. The process will identify

core competency requirements and the

strategies necessary to meet the agency's

programmatic strategic human resources needs.

The approach for carrying out this

process...includes methods to be used for:

• performing an assessment of current

technical capacity

• identifying competencies (e.g.,

knowledge and skills) needed to achieve

mission requirements

•

designing workforce strategies to

address the gaps between current

capacity and projected needs.” 

–SECY-01-0012 Action Plan for

Maintaining Core Competence

Goal 2: Training Effectiveness—Ensure agency training needs are identified and met.

Strategies:

1. Use the strategic workforce planning (SWP) and learning management system (LMS)

tools to better determine, plan for, track, and meet training and development needs.

2. Consistently implement a systems approach to training to ensure that training activities

achieve the intended performance outcomes.

3. Strengthen partnerships among training and development stakeholders to ensure their

awareness of agency training products and services and to keep training programs

current and relevant.

4. Evaluate and apply current and emerging learning tools and methodologies, as

appropriate, to reduce time and travel costs for attending classroom training.

Effective training and development programs empower employees, improve their performance,

and increase job satisfaction. The NRC faces continuing challenges to enhance and improve

its training and development processes. The agency must ensure that its employees have the

information, skills, and competencies they need to work effectively in a rapidly changing and

complex environment. Emerging demands and the increased availability of new technologies

challenge the agency to provide training that meets individual and organizational needs.

The agency has made a significant investment

in SWP to support the assessment of gaps in

skills and competencies and the identification

of strategies for closing these gaps to meet

current, emerging, and future challenges. 

Investments in training, development, and

education programs will be linked in large

measure to gaps identified through SWP. 

The agency will also use succession planning

information in planning training and

development programs. 

The NRC is implementing an agencywide LMS. 

The LMS is a Web-based software product

that will increase effectiveness and efficiency

by giving employees and managers more tools

at their desktop for planning training,

registering, tracking, reporting, and providing

access to online training opportunities.

Increased use of IDPs and qualification

program templates within the LMS can serve

as useful planning tools by providing input to

decisionmakers as they set training priorities

and identify the agency’s future skill and

competency needs.
6

FY 2004–FY2009 Strategic Human Capital

and Workforce Restructuring Plan

Human Capital Goal

Sustain the technical competence of the

NRC’s workforce and enhance its

effectiveness in achieving the mission.

The NRC conducts its training programs in

accordance with the five elements of the

systems approach to training, a model

commonly used by many other training

organizations. The NRC requires the

nuclear industry to use this model of the

training and development process. The

model describes a structured methodology

to help ensure that training investments

achieve desired performance outcomes. The

model’s five elements are (1) analyzing skill

or competency gaps to identify learning

objectives and performance outcomes, (2) designing the training to cover the learning

objectives to achieve the performance outcomes, (3) developing the training modules and

materials, (4) implementing the course or program, and (5) evaluating the training to ensure

that it is effective and efficient and achieves the desired results. Well-designed training and

development programs are linked to agency goals and to the skills and competencies needed

for effective job performance.

Effective training requires close communication and cooperation among the training

organization, the program offices, and the regions to identify and understand training and

development needs and to plan and coordinate training and development activities. The

training organization uses the training and development Web site, management directives,

policies, procedures, and network announcements to inform stakeholders about training and

development programs. Offices and regions communicate with the training organization

through counterpart meetings, working groups, and training needs surveys. Phone calls and 

emails among managers, office training contacts, and the training staff foster informationsharing and collaboration on training and development needs and issues. The offices and

regions keep training personnel apprised of changes in regulatory policies and practices that

may need to be incorporated into the training programs. To enhance communications, the

agency will employ new approaches, such as information portals and gateways, training

expositions, and training course catalogs and brochures.

The agency will align training courses and programs with its goals and strategies and maintain

their currency with new and changing policies and programs. Maintaining and updating the

curricula are essential for effective, and relevant training and development programs. Training

must reflect current regulatory, technical, and policy information and prepare participants to

address emerging issues. For in-house and contracted courses, training providers and user

communities will work in partnership to identify, evaluate, and determine information

appropriate for inclusion in existing or new training activities. Subject matter experts from the

offices and regions will assist in ensuring that agency training activities reflect NRC policies and

positions. 

Involving stakeholders throughout the design and development phases ensures that the training

product covers the learning objectives and results in the desired performance outcomes. 

Delivery methods such as self-study, computer-based training, or on-the-job training may be

more convenient or better meet the stakeholders’ needs when provided on demand–when and

where the student needs to learn the material. These approaches may be more timely or

meaningful when they are integrated with workflow and workers can receive just-in-time
7

training. Traditional classroom training and computer-based training may be blended together

to provide a more enhanced, effective training experience. 

The agency selects training delivery methods for courses by first considering their effectiveness

for the subject matter and the potential audience. It then weighs these factors against cost and

timeliness to select training that meets both the agency's and individuals' needs and results in a

satisfactory outcome. The agency evaluates alternative approaches to reduce time and travel

costs to attend classroom training and implements them when they will provide an effective

learning experience.

Identifying competencies and training needs in an integrated manner provides a basis for

constructing a more effective, comprehensive, and efficient training program that meets the

needs of all agency employees, positions, functions, and organizations. As the agency

identifies competency gaps, it will revise and update training, development, education, and

knowledge management programs to provide the needed competencies. 
8

NRC 2004–2009 Strategic Plan

Management Goal 

Budget and Performance Integration

Strategies

The NRC will employ the following

strategies to achieve the management

excellence goal:

• Improve linkage of individual and

organizational performance

standards to NRC's Performance

Budget. 

•

Use and improve the Planning,

Budgeting, and Performance

Management process to ensure

better integration of performance

results into NRC planning and

budgeting. 

Goal 3: Training Efficiency—Ensure training resources are optimized and the agency is

realizing the intended benefits of training.

Strategies:

1. Improve the processes for planning, budgeting, and scheduling training and

development resources and activities.

2. Effectively use agency training resources (training staff, instructors, facilities, and

equipment) to support agency programs.

3. Ensure the appropriate mix of centralized and decentralized training.

4. Implement meaningful evaluation tools and performance measures to assess progress

toward achieving results aligned with the agency’s mission and goals.

Planning and executing an integrated, agencywide approach for training and development is

key to positioning the agency to address current challenges and meet emerging demands. The

agency must take steps to better anticipate staffing, skills, and expertise to improve planning

and reduce reactive responses. The NRC focuses on the delivery of training as a valuecreating proposition. It can increase the effectiveness of training by providing higher value

training–training that is more accurate, relevant, meaningful, or timely. The agency also seeks

to provide cost-effective training–training that meets programmatic goals but requires less time

or capital.

The agency will improve training needs

surveys to obtain strategic, organizational,

and tactical changes requiring new and

revised training and development efforts.

Offices and regions will use training

utilization data provided by the training

organization to identify efficiencies in

planning, scheduling, and resource

allocation. 

The agency will use budget planning and

execution processes and the time and labor

system to capture and track agencywide

expenditures for conducting and attending

training. The NRC Program Review

Committee (PRC) reviews and prioritizes

training budget requests to ensure that

resources are adequate to support the

agency’s goals and strategies. Complete

and accurate data will allow the agency to

better establish priorities, identify efficiencies

and inefficiencies, maximize the use of
9

resources, and determine the best ways to leverage investments to improve performance and

achieve results. 

Members of the training staff frequently support agency nontraining programs by providing

expertise in their specialty areas, such as support for licensing, inspection, research, and

incident response initiatives. Significant training staff involvement in incident response activities

is anticipated in the future. Simulators support program and regional office projects and NRC

training resources support training requests from Agreement States, other Federal agencies,

and foreign regulatory organizations. The NRC will prioritize the use of training and

development resources to maintain agency training programs and assist in meeting other

agency goals.

Currently, the agency offers a mix of centralized and decentralized training. Centralizing

training and development enhances the consistency of training content and offers potential cost

savings through economies of scale. Decentralized training allows the tailoring of programs to

meet the specific needs of the organizational unit and enables the units to exert more control

over resources and associated costs of training; however, decentralized programs may present

challenges unless the systems approach to training is used. An appropriate mix of centralized

and decentralized training limits unnecessary overlap and duplication of effort and ensures

delivery of integrated and high-quality training. Offices and regions will partner with the training

organization to determine the most appropriate method to efficiently meet training and

development needs and to ensure consistent quality of training. 

The training organization will evaluate stakeholder input and feedback mechanisms for training

and development programs to determine whether additional levels of evaluation are necessary

and cost-effective to ensure quality and results. Increased use of higher level evaluations

would require cooperation, input, and resource expenditure from all training stakeholders

including attendees, supervisors, and managers. 

The agency will explore ways to improve performance measures and metrics focusing on the

training and development programs’ contributions to individual and organizational performance. 

To ensure value added and cost-effectiveness, the agency will discuss the proposed feedback,

evaluation, and performance measurement processes with the offices and regions before

implementing any revisions.
10

President’s Management Agenda Leadership 

and Knowledge Management Standards for

Success:

Agency leaders and managers effectively

manage people, ensure continuity of leadership,

sustain a learning environment that drives

continuous improvement in performance, and

provide a means to share critical knowledge

across the organization. Knowledge

Management must be supported by an

appropriate investment in training and

technology. 

Goal 4: Organizational Performance—Ensure that organizational training and

development policies and practices foster a culture of continuous improvement and

optimal organizational performance.

Strategies:

1. Provide agency leaders with training and development opportunities for the full spectrum

of leadership competencies designated by the OPM.

2. Provide organizational development services to help agency managers and supervisors

identify and address organizational performance improvement opportunities.

3. Provide orientation, training, and development opportunities to initiate new employees

into the mission, vision, values, and culture of the NRC.

4. Foster a knowledge-sharing culture to facilitate learning as part of the agencywide

knowledge management program. 

The training and development strategies to achieve optimal organizational performance align

with and support NRC’s human capital strategies by developing competent leaders, addressing

performance improvement opportunities, orienting new employees to NRC’s mission and

culture, and supporting a knowledge-sharing environment.

A strong, motivated leadership is fundamental to the success of any organization. The NRC will

continue its well-established system of training courses and developmental programs for its

current and future leaders. This includes required training courses for new supervisors and

team leaders, the Team Leader Development Program and Leadership Potential Program for

aspiring new supervisors, the Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program

(SESCDP) for aspiring executives, and Executive Leadership Seminars for continuing learning

opportunities for NRC leaders. The NRC

Executive Resources Board oversees the

agency’s leadership training and development

programs to ensure that these programs are

consistent with the agency’s strategic goals

and meet agency needs.

NRC’s SESCDP is designed to ensure that

participants in the program attain competency

in each of the leadership competencies

required for SES certification by OPM. The

NRC adopted OPM’s leadership competencies

as the basis for developing leaders at all levels

of the agency. The NRC will revise its

leadership development programs and internal

leadership courses to correspond to the OPM

leadership competencies.
11

Occasionally, NRC’s leaders need professional assistance diagnosing and addressing

functional problems within their organizations. Organizational development (OD) is the

systematic process of assisting an organization to be more effective in accomplishing its

desired goals. It is distinguished from human resources development (HRD) in that HRD

focuses on the personal growth of individuals within organizations, while OD focuses on

developing the structures, systems, and processes within the organization to improve

organizational effectiveness. In that context, OD can be viewed as training for the organization.

OD addresses the ways in which people communicate and work together concurrently with

technical or procedural issues.

To facilitate improvement in organizational performance, the NRC provides resources to

support the development of effective organizations. The availability and use of these services

will be communicated to managers and supervisors to ensure their awareness of how and when

to request services. Effective use of OD services requires partnership between the service

providers and the managers needing support. Clearly defining action plans and resource

requirements will ensure effective and efficient use of resources to improve organizational

performance.

The NRC achieves a high-quality, diverse work force by recruiting individuals with detailed

knowledge and specialized skills in a variety of disciplines. The agency provides programs to

orient and engage these individuals in NRC’s mission. NRC will continue to offer a

comprehensive new employee orientation program, a Nuclear Safety Professional Development

Program, and office-sponsored training and qualification programs to ensure that employees

collectively have the knowledge and skills to achieve NRC’s mission and goals.

The NRC is a knowledge-centric agency that relies on the aggregate knowledge of its staff to

make the sound regulatory decisions needed to accomplish the agency’s mission. The agency

will institute a systematic approach to knowledge management (KM) to support knowledge

collection, transfer, and use to meet the agency’s needs resulting from increased staff

retirements, mid-career staff turnovers, the addition of new staff, and the broader scope of

knowledge needed to deal with new technologies and new reactor designs. 

The agency will develop a set of KM standard practices and techniques, including technical

mentoring, formal training and qualification programs, policies and procedures, regulatory

guides, standard review plans, job aids, best practices, and information technology solutions.

As the agency moves forward in implementing its KM program, it will integrate these practices

and techniques with training and development activities to facilitate the sharing of critical

knowledge and skills among NRC staff.
12

1. FY 2004-FY 2009 NRC Strategic Plan

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1614/v3/sr1614v3.pdf

2. NRC Strategic Human Capital and Workforce Restructuring Plan

http://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/idmws/doccontent.dll?library=PU_ADAMS^PBNTAD01

&ID=063550131:2

3. NRC’s Comprehensive Diversity Management Plan

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/brochures/br0316/br0316.pdf

4. President’s Management Agenda Leadership and Knowledge Management Standards

for Success 

http://www.opm.gov/hcaaf_resource_center/assets/HCAAF_3_LeadKnowMngt.pdf

5. NRC’s Strategic Workforce Planning Process

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/secys/2001/secy2001- 

0012/2001-0012scy.html

6. NRC’s Planning, Budgeting, and Performance Management (PBPM) Process

http://www.nrc.gov/who-we-are/plans-performance.html

Endnotes
H

Trainin

R

g & D

T

eve

D

lopment

Human Resources

Appendix A

13
February 2007

NUREG/BR-0332