UK to open five defence colleges to train teenagers in cyber warfare and engineering
Teenagers will be able to learn about cyber warfare in sixth form as part of a £182 million government funding package to boost defence recruitment.
Five new “technical excellence colleges” focused on defence are set to open across the country next year to develop the skills needed to ensure national security.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it hoped to create a fresh pipeline of submarine engineers, specialist welders, and cyber warfare specialists that the defence industry will need in the years to come.
The initiative will transform five existing further education colleges into specialist institutions centred on defence. Colleges will be able to apply to take part in the scheme later this year, with the successful crop to open in 2026.
It forms part of a suite of measures set to be announced next week in the Government’s new defence industrial strategy, which the MoD claimed will stimulate the economy by creating new defence-sector jobs.
The defence industry has been grappling with a recruitment and retention crisis in recent years, largely driven by skills shortages in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
It has fuelled concerns that Britain may be ill-equipped for a major war, despite a backdrop of worsening geopolitical tensions and multiple live conflicts.
Sir Keir Starmer set out plans earlier this year to increase defence spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2027, with a vague “ambition” to raise this to 3 percent by the end of this Parliament.
Training pupils for future defence careers
Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, said a new focus on training 16-year-olds for future defence careers would help tackle shortages and “secure the UK’s place in the world”.
The five new defence colleges will develop specialist curricula to train pupils in “emerging technologies” and match them with industry jobs, a Government source said.
It follows a similar drive unveiled last month to strengthen the construction industry, with 10 further technical excellence colleges in England set to train 40,000 bricklayers, electricians, carpenters and plumbers.
The latest £182 million defence uplift will also finance thousands of short courses to enable employers to “upskill new hires and existing staff more quickly,” the MoD said.
Universities will receive around £80 million from the latest spending package to “invest in cutting-edge facilities” and expand places on defence-related courses.
A new defence section will also be added to the Ucas university applications website so prospective students interested in the industry can be guided more easily.
John Healey, the Defence Secretary, said it marked the “biggest defence skills plan in decades” and would “create well-paid, high-skilled jobs for young people for generations to come”.
The Government will unveil further initiatives to revitalise the defence industry as part of its new industrial strategy set to be launched next week.
British manufacturers have said it must support smaller UK-based businesses, with the MoD’s own figures showing that these only receive a quarter of Britain’s defence spending.
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