WINS believes that it should be possible to demonstrate the added value of professional training and development because the cost of providing training can be high; we have estimated the cost of some other “nuclear security awareness training courses” to be at least €2,500 per participant, for a series of lectures over a few days. Unless this leads to a measurable and sustainable
difference in nuclear security effectiveness it is probably a waste of money.
Questions to answer include:
— Does the person being trained need the training to discharge their responsibilities?
— Do you assess whether the person has understood the training?
— Do you assess whether the training is leading to sustainable changes over the longer term?
— Does the training build local capacity and reduce the need for external financial support?
The WINS Academy will address all these questions and provide a highly cost-effective programme which is expected to be financially self sustaining from 2016, as more participants pay to take the courses and the certification tests. We expect the certified courses to cost about €750 to complete, and there will be incentives to take and pass the tests. We recognise the importance of supporting applicants from developing countries and we plan to make scholarships available, and also allow partners to buy redeemable vouchers in bulk for discounted pricing.
Over the first two years the Academy will need financial support to help get established and a number of governments, Foundations and Corporate members of WINS are providing the initial financial support. WINS is planning on establishing a Contribution Fund to which supporters can contribute and an Academy Consultation Group of the major supporters to help guide the development of the WINS Academy over the years ahead, so that it becomes sustainable.
WINS has conducted research to benchmark the cost of our programme against other relevant online certification programmes. The results are summarised below:
The programmes we considered in this research include:
– Project Management Institute (PMI) programme for Project Management Professional (PMP)
– WINS Academy Certification Programme (WINS)
– Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC) programme for Certified Intrusion Analysts (CIA)
– PRINCE2 Practitioner Online Certification for Project Management (CPM)
– American Petroleum Institute (API)’s API 510 Pressure Vessel Inspector Certification
– ASIS programme for Certified Protection Professional (CPP)
– Association of Energy Engineers (AAE) programme for Business Energy Professional (BEP) or Certified Energy Auditor (CEA)
– International Civil Aviation Organisation course in Aviation Security Professional Management (AVSEC PM)
