Next year BAE is to create more than 2,400 new apprentice, undergraduate and graduate roles, which will result in a record number of 6,500 in training, making up approximately 15% of its UK workforce.
Its spending will top £230 million in terms of its investment in education and skills which will take the total amount spent on upskilling people across the UK since 2020 to beyond £1 billion.
The funding, which has grown year-on-year since the Covid-19 pandemic, is being spent primarily on UK apprentices, graduates and experienced employees, as well as education outreach, helping to cement the company’s reputation as a leader in growing the nation’s industrial skills base.
The announcement comes just a week after the government released figures showing that there had only been a small increase in the number of apprenticeships starts in the engineering and technology sectors (1.6%) last year.
More women were found to be entering the engineering and technology workforce via this route, with 17.5% of all apprenticeship starts in the sector accounted for by women, up from 15.7% the previous year, with 16,980 female apprenticeship starts overall.
However, there was a decline and plateauing of Level 2 and 3 engineering and technology apprenticeships with Level 2 apprenticeships falling by 8.7% over the last year taking the number to just 21,000, well under half that recorded in 2017/18. Level 3 apprenticeship starts remained stable with only a small increase of 1%.
While those figures are certainly disappointing, BAE Systems has opened its third multi-million-pound skills academy in Glasgow and continues to expand its established academies in Barrow and Samlesbury.
Crucially, the company has established a range of partnerships with colleges, universities and social mobility champions, like Movement to Work.
Charles Woodburn, Chief Executive, BAE Systems talks about the importance of investing in its people and the company is certainly delivering on that.
BAE Systems is looking to hire more than 1,100 graduates and undergraduates, giving each cohort the chance to work on some of the world’s most advanced technology programmes including the Global Combat Air Programme and the UK’s next-generation submarines known as SSN-AUKUS.
The company is also investing heavily in its early careers schemes which it says are vital in developing the talent pipeline needed by the company as well helping to build the next group of industrial leaders, with many former apprentices and graduates going on to become leaders in the company.
BAE Systems has more than 60 programmes available with opportunities spread across a variety of skills from steelwork and engineering to cyber security, software development, finance and project management.
This year, 30% of the company’s new apprentice starters are female, while one in three of its new graduate starters this year came from ethnic minority backgrounds.
BAE Systems’ efforts make it a stand-out performer in the UK’s electronics and engineering sector which needs many more young people coming through the education and skills system and into the workforce. Crucially, it also needs more young people to come from diverse backgrounds that are more representative of society.
As we discussed last month in NE when we looked at T-levels more companies must start reaching out to local colleges and schools in order to attract more young people to the sector, and they need to start playing a more active role in helping secure the future of engineering in the UK.
To find out more about working BAE Systems follow the link below.
