Skills in the Defence Sector
As the new co-chair of the Defence Suppliers Forum’s (DSF) People & Skills Group – something I am passionate about, having started my own career as an engineering apprentice in the area of civil and military simulation – I was delighted this week to attend the ‘Skills for Growth Summit’ hosted by the Secretary of State for Education.?At the Summit I was also able to engage with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade and the Prime Minister’s adviser on business and investment.
There have been longstanding concerns about skills shortages across the defence sector.?The concerns include the health and size of the pool from which employees are drawn as well as the increasingly competitive nature of the recruitment market.?Philip Dunne’s 2018 report on Growing the contribution of defence to UK prosperity highlighted these issues.?It noted that these were part of a broader national issue.?The 2021 Defence and Security Industrial Strategy recognised the need for the Ministry of Defence to ‘work with industry to nurture and develop relevant skills’.?
As co-chair of the People & Skills Group, I thought it would be helpful to outline my priorities to help address this challenge.
First, there remains a poor evidence base about the skills challenge that can be used to develop potential solutions.?How do industry and the Ministry of Defence work together to develop a sufficient evidence base of the skills that are needed for current and future requirements??There is potentially a role for the Joint Economic Data Hub (JEDHub) in this.
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Secondly, are there existing examples of best practice for developing skills in areas of the defence sector, nationally or internationally??What can we learn from these initiatives and how can they be emulated or scaled in other areas?
Thirdly, how do we improve visibility of the pathways for entering the defence sector, particularly for apprenticeships, and how do we more create opportunities for mid-career entrants??This includes improving the “image” of the sector and continuing to maximise diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Finally, how do we encourage more joined-up initiatives on skills between the Ministry of Defence, the Department for Education, and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
There is a pan-enterprise desire to improve on skills and I look forward to working with all stakeholders in this important area.
Excellent piece Paul and could not agree more. Very happy to help in any manner.
SFIA | Skills & Competencies | Digital, IT and Cyber Security Skills & Talent Management
1 年Hoping to see SFIA used within this initiative, to provide the common language for digital, IT and other technology-related specialisms.
Senior Partner and VP Defence UK at IBM Director, SiXworks an IBM company
1 年The ‘Defence Sector’ is now a broader church than it has ever been, and critical we embrace the broader eco-system of suppliers to provide the digital skills required for our Military colleagues. Incredible innovation is occurring in broader industries and as the focus centres around data, it is critical that Defence can embrace the learnings elsewhere. Fantastic to see this work developing Paul ??
Pilot | Technologist
1 年Thanks for the post Paul Livingston! Perhaps I can make a suggestion regarding your first point. I’d suggest in UK Defence, the evidence lies in the National Audit Office reports on the way in which we develop capability, and have found to be lacking in a lot of areas. This isn’t a criticism of any one group or individual, but an acknowledgement that systematically, we aren’t organised in such a way that allows us to adopt technology at pace and scale. I’m a firm believer that most people can learn most skills. This is coming from a guy who didn’t get very good GCSE’s but subsequently managed to achieve a first class maths degree because I was put in the right environment. We should be engineering the environment, and not micro analysing skills. The need for constantly changing skill will continue, so I believe we should be looking for and investing in people who are able to adapt to that change as quickly as possible. And in the case of Defence, I believe the best way to do that is to close the gap between developers (whether software or hardware) and front line operators, as opposed to continually throw requirements over the wall making them ‘someone else’s problem’. More than happy to discuss if you would like to connect ????
DG CIO U.K. Ministry of Defence
1 年Paul, this is good to see and, despite some great progress, is a critical challenge that requires significantly more individual and collective effort.