Development of a Measure of Training Program Effectiveness for Nuclear Power Plants

Abstract

The approach taken to develop measures of training program effectiveness recognizes that many subject matter experts (SMEs) with varying viewpoints on training effectiveness are working to insure nuclear power plant (NPP) safety. These viewpoints include: Training program developers; Nuclear site personnel: instructors, supervisors, managers; Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) personnel; Contractor inspection/audit personnel; Industry professional organization personnel; University researchers. SMEs from each of these viewpoints have an impact, via their work, on NPP training effectiveness and consequently on NPP safety. Their training program assessment strategies are in-place, operational entities which are used to guide their work. Since those assessment strategies are largely unknown because of their unstated, subjective form, several critical issues arise: 1. Are the SMEs' training assessment strategies different? 2. If the training assessment strategies are different, are they equivalent, or are they working unknowingly toward somewhat different goals? 3. Can a measure of training effectiveness be built by modeling SMEs' assessment strategies? To answer these questions we must model the effectiveness rating strategies of various SMEs whose ratings are important to training; i.e., build an measure of effectiveness (MOE) representing the rating strategy of a sample of those SMEs. A quantitative model of these assessment strategies permits a broad review of them by all interested parties and provides the basis for building a broadly accepted training program MOE. Major differences in assessment strategies can be examined to determine whether they are appropriate to the different points of view or are in conflict. This paper describes the basic concepts of building effectiveness measures, the methodology used to build the measures, a summary of the measures developed from NRC and industry sources, and an analysis of the differences among SMEs' measures.