In the UK, our award-winning early career and skills programmes supported around 4,500 young people in training in 2022:
- 1,073 new apprentices started at BAE Systems in 2022 and 1,460 are forecast for 2023;
- 706 graduates and undergraduates started in 2022 and 1,276 are forecast for 2023;
- around 77 young people completed placements at BAE Systems as part of the Movement to Work initiative and the UK Government’s Kickstart programme; and
- our 2022 partnership with Code First Girls led to 15 of the participants joining the Company as junior software engineers.
We also launched a new Sustainability Apprenticeship scheme with Cranfield University. The first cohort of nine started the apprenticeship in March 2022, and a second cohort of up to eight apprentices will follow in March 2023. The new and unique programme will play a key role in building a network of sustainability champions across the Group who will help to drive progress on our sustainability agenda.
In Australia, 75 apprentices and 101 graduates are in training (2021/22 cohorts), and in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 94 trainees, students and graduates joined our early years careers programmes during 2022.