Abstract Nuclear safety depends largely on the competence and competencies of the employees in the sector. While this is not a new subject, numerous current and future changes once again bring into question these competencies and their management. In recent years, a number of studies have demonstrated the limitations of the managerial approach to competencies, in particular their failure to take into account the collective dimension of said competencies and the contextual aspects of their implementation. In our opinion, competencies must be considered in terms of the work activity so that they are not restricted to a systematised formalism, and their management must be tackled within the organised framework in which they are deployed.