With outsourcing from Japan Nuclear Technology Institute (JANTI) and continued support from individual utilities, development of a program entitled, “Operator Teamwork Development Seminar” was carried out and a pilot class took place at BTC over a three day period from March 3^rd to 5^th, 2009.  Mock participants as well as observers were provided by individual utilities.

　　The program title “Operator Teamwork Development Seminar” may give the impression that the program was designed for operation shift teams. However, we developed two separate programs this time, based upon the following two job positions and roles:

1) Senior Class Operators (Shift Managers, Control Room Supervisors) : Effective Management
2) Middle Class Operators (Operators who share the part of supervisory roles) : Demonstration of Leadership

　　This development is based on expert analysis that states “in order to improve operator teamwork, it is especially important that individuals in these two job positions fulfill their respective roles as managers and leaders.”

　　The design and development of the program was based on the SAT (Systematic Approach to Training) process, and each program is structured to include the following topics:

1) A seminar for Senior Class Operators (Phase 1) : professionalism in operation, team management, conflict resolution, and coaching skills
2) A seminar for Middle Class Operators : leadership, communication, team building, conflict resolution, and stress management

　　Each of these topics differs from the knowledge and technical skills training that BTC has been doing up until this point in that the contents pertain to so-called “soft skills.” Prior to this current development and per the support of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), we had a chance to attend similar programs with titles such as “Leadership Seminars” and “Professional Development Seminars” which were developed and provided to the managements of utilities by the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) in the USA. We also had a chance to attend similar programs provided by Ontario Power Generation (OPG) in Canada.

　　In Japan, there are training programs of this type which are not necessarily job specific, have only a general content, and are carried out by respective utilities at certain times such as when employees receive job promotions.  However, participants have expressed difficulty in applying the lessons learned from these programs to their specific job duties.  For this reason, we intentionally designed programs that limit participation to “operators” and that have contents which suit the duties of operators. By adopting this concept,