International Co-operation

European Network on Education and Training in Radiation Protection (ENETRAP)

enetrap

Everywhere in Europe, a decrease in radiation protection competency can be observed, since experienced experts retire and young people do no longer consider this field to be their intended career. New initiatives are to counteract this development. It is intended to concentrate the available resources through a "Europeanisation" of those parts of training and education that are not bound to national regulations.

The ENETRAP project (ENETRAP = European Network on Education and Training in Radiation Protection) in which BfS was in charge of one work package, was discontinued at the end of 2007, after it had successfully developed and had shown good results such as the establishment of a study course "European Master in Radiation Protection". It had become apparent during the course of the project that a number of important issues needed further investigation. Therefore representatives of large European radiation protection authorities or, respectively, research and training centres from Belgium, Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Hungary, and Romania, submitted a proposal for further improvement of education and training in radiation protection in Europe within the scope of the RP7: the ENETRAP II project.

ENETRAP II

The generic objectives of this initiative are:

Further improvement of the high safety level in the handling of radioactive materials and radiation sources in all EU countries through harmonisation of education and training measures in radiation protection;
Europe-wide standardised implementation of the EU safety standards in radiation protection;
Support of the acceding countries with respect to the building of competence or, respectively, to the preservation of competence in radiation protection.

These objectives are achieved through further expanding the European education and training network and performing competence-preserving measures such as joint training activities in modular form and with varying venues, new ways to communicate knowledge (such as e-learning) and to standardise contents.

The following work packages of the ENETRAP II project contribute to further harmonising education and training in radiation protection in Europe:

Coordination of the project
Define requirements and methodology for recognition of RPEs
Define requirements for RPO competencies and establish reference standards for RPO training
Establish the reference standard for RPE training
Develop and apply mechanisms for the evaluation of training material, events and providers.
Create a database of training events and training providers (including OJT) conforming to the agreed standard
Develop some course material examples (text book, e-learning modules)
Organise pilot sessions, test proposed methodologies and monitor the training scheme effectiveness
Introduction of the training passport and mutual recognition system of RPEs
Bringing together initiatives to attract young researchers

ENETRAP II has been completed end of 2012. Reports on the findings and results of the project can be found on the ENETRAP Homepage.

ENETRAP III

The ENETRAP III project started in June 2014. New topics have been included in the work programme, such as for example the implementation of ECVET (European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training). Moreover a train-the-trainers strategy was developed. More information can be found on the ENETRAP homepage.

State of 2018.03.06