Developing space skills in 2024: It’s not all rocket science

The space sector in the UK is continuing to evolve and grow at an encouraging pace. UK space sector income reached £17.5 billion by the end of 2021, and the 12-month period finishing in June 2023 saw the UK rank third globally for investments with £237 million invested – not far behind China’s £296m.

Given our nation’s legacy in space alongside world-leading digital and regulatory expertise, the outlook for the future is looking extremely positive. And the UK’s private sector space ambitions are matched by those in the public sector, with the UK government’s 2021 National Space Strategy detailing its aspiration to “build one of the most innovative and attractive space economies in the world”.

However, sustaining both this growth and a competitive edge over other nations throughout 2024 and beyond will require the right skills. This points to an urgent need to cultivate a multidisciplinary workforce across the UK that will be well-equipped to deal with the industry’s future challenges and opportunities.

Looking far and wide

Although we’ve come a long way in recent years, there are various technical and regulatory challenges that still need to be overcome when it comes to space operations. Take cyber security of space systems and assets as an example. This area is still developing and the challenges and technologies involved – which will no doubt evolve in the future – are wide-ranging.

As such, the space sector of the future will require an extensive set of skills. Of course there will be a large technical element covering areas such as AI and machine learning, security architectures, data science etc. But organisations also can’t afford to overlook the importance of soft skills. Strong collaboration and problem-solving skills, being passionate and ambitious, an ability to communicate with stakeholders – these will all be essential.

To paraphrase a speaker from the Space Hub Forum at DSEI 2023 who encapsulated this perfectly, key to evolving the space sector over the coming months and years will be finding the right balance between dreamers and engineers.

And we can’t just rely on developing the skills of people already working in space. We must also attract talented people from outside of the space sector; people who have different experiences and perspectives to contribute, for example from the wider defence and software industry. This will require us as an ecosystem to think outside the box when it comes to attracting talent – such as providing training opportunities and advertising jobs in new ways – in order to appeal to a wider audience.

For example, can we provide opportunities for career changers with transferrable skills, both from technical and non-technical areas? How do we make these people aware that their skills are applicable and valuable to space? And what about international engagement with partners and allies; is there a way to take more global view of recruitment and skills development without putting the UK at a disadvantage?

These are not easy questions to answer, but must be addressed if we want to build a workforce that can help the UK flourish on the world stage.

Looking to the future

The other critical component is how we inspire the next generation. It’s critical that we create opportunities for young people to get involved in space as early as possible. Investing in the talent pool for the future is a very real challenge that requires a whole-of-ecosystem approach, with joint effort between industry, government and academia.

There are several ways to do this. For example, providing opportunities for schools to get involved in space projects, such as when Blue Peter viewers entered the “Awesome Orbit” competition to design a mission patch and plaque for an In-Space Missions satellite. Sending representatives into schools to educate and inspire children on what a career in space could look like across a broad spectrum of roles, not just astronauts, and highlighting people from different backgrounds to encourage diversity are also ways of letting school students know that there are exciting opportunities working on space projects if they stick with STEM subjects. 

Then there’s providing apprenticeship and training programmes that give young people the opportunity to take their first step into space. One example is the UK’s first space engineering degree from BAE Systems that will be delivered by University of Portsmouth. Over the four year programme, apprentices will design, manufacture and test spacecraft to help drive space innovation. They will also get the chance to support our Azalea programme, which is due to launch in 2025 to deliver high-quality information and intelligence in real-time to military customers.

There are a huge range of roles available in the sector – from software engineers to project managers – but it’s only by providing opportunities such as this for practical education that we as a sector will be able to inspire and empower the next generation.

Ultimately, from Primes to SMEs and everyone in between, the ecosystem as a collective must be pulling in the same direction. The more young people get excited about working in space, the more the sector as a whole – and in turn, the UK – will benefit. A lot of the pieces are already in place. We have the appetite from government, the right heritage as a nation, and world-leading expertise in several key areas. Now we must focus on building an inclusive and multidisciplinary workforce that has the passion to lead the future of UK space.

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