Overcoming the Paradox of Training Design for Future and Ill-Defined Practices

Abstract Nuclear decommissioning exemplifies a rapidly evolving and emerging field where new and specialized skills are required due to changing work practices. Over the next few decades, several French power plants will need to be dismantled. Most of the operations will be carried out remotely, but this has never been done before for graphite-gas reactors. A new training program for future teleoperators therefore needs to be designed. How can we train for and anticipate the skills required for a practice that does not yet exist? How can we ground training design in the analysis of work-as-done, as recommended in current guidelines, when the work itself remains hypothetical or has yet to take shape? We suggest adopting an anticipatory stance and a future-oriented approach to meet the new challenges faced by organizations. Through our ongoing empirical research in partnership with Électricité de France (EDF), we then illustrate our proposal to study existing activities using a practice-approximation approach in order to develop innovative training programs and situations.