Medicines Discovery Catapult is reshaping drug discovery for patient benefit by transforming great UK science into better treatments through partnership. The life sciences industry is critical to the UK’s health, wealth, and resilience. Attracting, recruiting, training, and retaining a skilled workforce is key to ongoing success in this critical sector.

The life sciences sector is among the most valuable and strategically important to the UK economy.^[2]

In the UK, life sciences employment has increased continuously since 2012. According to the Office for Life Sciences, there were 282,000 people employed in the UK life sciences sector in 2021 – a 4% increase compared to 2020. 

Medicines Discovery Catapult is at the life science industry’s epicentre. Ideally placed to identify key areas where drug innovators need advanced skills to enable the development of game-changing medical breakthroughs and benefit patients.  

Global competition and the application of new disciplines, such as AI and complex personalised medicines, means that the sector’s continued growth depends upon building

[1] British Science Association, 2022
[2] Bioscience & Health Technology Statistics, 2021

a multi-disciplined pipeline of bright minds already in the industry and the ability to attract new talent with specialist skills.  

As part of this mission, Medicines Discovery Catapult continues to contribute to skills development by:

• Teaming up with the Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership’s (LEP) Pledge Partnership for a school engagement programme reaching hundreds of pupils across 13 schools with interactive lessons delivered by Catapult scientists.
• Producing a virtual school video lesson as part of the British Science Week curriculum. Distributed to 90 schools across the regional school network and receiving over 340 views so far.
• Hosting an annual cohort of PhD interns from local Universities as part of a training, talent, and skills agenda, to help develop the next generation of drug discovery researchers.
• Engaging in eight national celebration days, including British Science Week and International Day of Women & Girls in Science, shining a spotlight on the importance of the Life Sciences sector and highlighting career opportunities.
• Driving the skills conversation for the sector through high-profile thought leadership.

The transition to Net Zero means there is a need to train over 1 million people in the coming 20-30 years. Similarly, urgent action is required to encourage a more diverse pool of entrants into the heating workforce, where women account for only 2% and those with ethnic minority backgrounds make up 5%.

With 29 million homes needing to be decarbonised by 2050, the UK faces multiple challenges including a complex, disruptive and inefficient consumer journey, lack of quality control, and an underprepared education sector. These issues need to be overcome in order to redress the skills gap and meet demand in the UK’s energy workforce.

Existing education in the energy and construction sectors is essentially about new buildings and gas heating. The current set of skills in the market will need significant upgrades and new occupations will have to be created such as controls systems engineers and retrofit advisors.

A whole building and systems approach, digital tools and innovation are required but are not currently integrated into syllabuses. Coordination at national and regional levels will need to be underpinned by Net Zero skills in order to meet UK decarbonisation targets.

Energy Systems Catapult’s mission to help the UK realise Net Zero requires a skilled workforce to make it easy and desirable for people to decarbonise buildings, particularly domestic ones. The Catapult has conducted foresighting on the retrofit process using forecasts on emerging skills to identify the gaps in current provision and future need; determining the potential to future-proof the UK’s workforce.

Energy Systems Catapult focuses on identifying the skills and knowledge required to create a Net-Zero mission-driven, customer-focused workforce that employs a whole-systems approach to both the supply chain and individual properties; embracing the use of innovative digital tools.

A satisfactory customer journey in retrofit will only happen if the workforce has the requisite skills and the challenge now is to work with training providers and industry to prepare learning resources for practitioners that are accessible, informative, and demonstrably worthy of investing in for the future success of their business.

Energy Systems Catapult has also contributed towards a Retrofit Training and Skills Assessment for the Greater South-East Net Zero Hub (GSENZH). To assess the shortfall in the skills required to deliver Net Zero, the Catapult estimated the work required to transform housing in the region and the skills required to do it. This was completed by modelling the performance of all homes (c.10 million) in the GSENZH area and assessing what work is required to bring them up to Net Zero standard. The analysis indicated that meeting Net Zero requirements across all housing in this specific area requires around 46,500 full-time equivalent workers each year to 2050,^[1] enabling the GSENZH to develop achievable plans towards their Net Zero future.

[1] Domestic Retrofit: Market Intelligence & Skills Assessment

The Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult has adopted a community engagement strategy that focuses resources and expertise in support of STEM education in local communities, delivering impactful social benefit.

Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult is a core partner in the Energy Central Campus (ECC), a transformational, business-led skills, education and innovation development to support growth in the low-carbon energy sector in Blyth and around the North East of England.

The ECC has received ~£26m in Government funding, via the Blyth Town Deal. This funding is being used to create a new Energy Central Learning Hub (ECLH), supporting school STEM activities, adult education and 16-18 Further Education activities from September 2024 onwards and a new Energy Central Institute (ECI), which is creating a centre for Higher Education, offering research opportunities and degree apprenticeships from July 2026 onwards.

Working alongside Northumberland County Council and the Port of Blyth, the project is developing local skills for

local jobs and supporting companies to adopt the latest clean growth innovation, providing development pathways, spanning school, Further and Higher Education, which is available to young people, adults and sector employees. Construction of the Learning Hub has commenced with completion scheduled for September 2024, and the Institute following a year behind.

The Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult is also involved in the Green Growth Skills Foresighting Project, a £400k consortium project, 70% grant funded by the North of Tyne Combined Authority, with Newcastle University, Newcastle College, Northumberland College, EPNE and Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult.  Research is underway, which will engage with local industry at technology levels to provide objective evidence of green skills requirements. The results will deliver a research-informed schools engagement programme to raise awareness of future green technology career opportunities, and the development and delivery of green technology sector training courses to facilitate re-skilling and up-skilling.

Satellite Applications Catapult’s ambition is to grow the space sector across the whole of the UK and close related skills gaps. The Catapult works closely with the sector including the UK Space Agency (UKSA), Ministry of Defence Space Command and DSIT Space Directorate to support growth and create opportunities at all levels, ensuring employers can attract, develop, and retain a skilled workforce.

There is a growing demand for scientific, engineering and technical skills in the industry, including AI and machine learning, but also soft skills, particularly those associated with collaborative working and commercial awareness. There is a general lack of recognition of the importance of space in everyday life and therefore of the careers that the sector can offer.

The flagship SPIN programme, supported by and lead alongside UKSA, brokers work experience in the sector and has provided almost 450 placements over the past 10 years. These real-world opportunities have led to job offers and to a much wider understanding of the opportunities presented by the sector for many students who would otherwise have gone elsewhere.

In addition, regional clusters are being supported as they develop local Skills Strategies and initiatives, notably in the North, both East and West where thriving communities and networks have been established to share expertise and best practice. In 2022, Space Hub Yorkshire hosted activities around the SPIN Showcase event which raised awareness of the space sector and the skills requirements needed for future growth and success.

Satellite Applications Catapult also supports skills development through engagement with space-oriented UKRI Centres for Doctoral Training and via the Researchers in Residence Programme, now Innovation Launchpad Network+. Working with other Catapults and Innovate UK, the Satellite Applications Catapult is also participating in ongoing pilot projects to carry out Workforce Foresighting around new and emerging technologies, which support the long-term objective of developing more apprenticeship opportunities. These collaborative activities feed into the development of a National Space Skills Institute with a solid evidence base. ^[1] 

[1] Space Sector Skills Survey 2020 

The Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult is placing the UK at the centre of a global cell and gene therapy industry. It is committed to the advancement of cell and gene therapies and has a vision for a thriving industry delivering life-changing advanced therapies to health providers and patients worldwide.

This industry requires a highly specialised workforce which the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult has predicted will grow by 117% between 2021 to 2026.^[1] The types of skills required include cell and gene therapy manufacturing, supply chains, logistics, and quality and process development.   

The Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult has taken the lead on surveying the industry to understand requirements and helped create, nurture and deliver the unique Advanced Therapies Apprenticeship Community (ATAC)^[2] focused on the development of new talent, upskilling in the sector and transferability from other sectors. Nearly 300 people have enrolled on apprenticeships organised and supported by ATAC and the programme has a high retention rate at 85%.

[1] ATMP Skills Demand Survey, 2021

[2] Advanced Therapies Apprenticeship Community

In partnership with industry, Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult also developed an Online Training Platform and identified a network^[3] of training centres focused on the manufacturing skills gaps for cell and gene therapies. There are over 2,300 active users of the Online Training Platform, which currently contains over 750 learning modules.

The Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult’s Advanced Therapies Skills Training Network has developed a Career Converter, a unique, cutting-edge tool that helps people measure their transferable skills against in-demand roles within the advanced therapies and vaccine manufacturing sectors.^[4] In 2022, the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult opened its dedicated Skills and Training Laboratories in Sycamore House, Stevenage. These laboratories provide access to state-of-the-art equipment and training facilities and aim to help provide a supply of trained talent for the advanced therapies industry. For example, the labs are home to virtual reality (VR) platforms developed in collaboration with UK companies, which allows for staff to be trained in VR simulations before moving into the real lab.

[3] Advanced Therapies Skills Training Network

[4] ATSN Career Converter tool

The vision of Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult is for the UK to become a global leader in developing and commercialising new applications for compound semiconductors. The Catapult is working with partners to identify skills gaps and future shortages, and to deliver solutions that build a specialised workforce, putting the UK at the forefront of a global compound semiconductor market.

Global revenue in the semiconductor sector was $601.7 billion in 2022, representing a 100.6% increase from 2012. Market analysis suggests that the industry’s aggregate annual growth could average from 6% to 8% a year up to 2030. ^[1]

In 2021, the South Wales Cluster directly supported £194 million in Gross Value Added (GVA) and 1,600 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) employees, alongside a further £83 million in GVA and 790 FTE jobs elsewhere in the Welsh economy.

Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult, through its Skills Academy, have identified key points in the skills pipeline where the industry is losing expertise and has designed a suite of interventions to plug those leaks. These interventions range from primary school to post-doctoral level and beyond.

The Catapult leads three STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) outreach interventions targeting primary schools (through the Driving the Electric Revolution UKRI

[1] National semiconductor strategy – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

programme), and two bespoke programmes targeting Year 8, 10 & 11 learners, the latter of which “Spark their Imagination; Power their future” is delivered in partnership with UK Electronic Skills Foundation. Interns also play an active role in STEM outreach.

Furthermore, Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult supports a Scholarship Programme providing a bursary and year-long internship for BEng/MEng students across five key technology areas. The programme, which can be completed over a two-year period, supports students financially, technically and equips them with essential transferable skillsets. Similarly, the Catapult sponsors PhD research at the CS Centre for Doctoral Training and the Sustainable Electrical Propulsion CDT (Centre for Doctoral Training).

Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult has begun a skills foresighting cycle, supported by The Gatsby Foundation and is feeding into the Foresighting Hub, developed in partnership with all Catapults and Innovate UK. This particular piece of work will look specifically at the 5G supply chain and what opportunities and challenges to overcome in terms of future skills and employment for the UK. The Catapult’s role in the CS Connected Skills and Education Group has fed into the National Occupational Standards Framework and consults on the industry CPD (Continued Professional Development) modules currently being developed by Cardiff University.

High Value Manufacturing Catapult’s vision for UK manufacturing takes into account the lack of available skilled workforce, from research through to industrial exploitation. The Catapult aims to boost the UK’s industrial transformation talent pool by removing barriers to opportunities for upskilling and reskilling in priority areas including digitalisation, electrification, advanced materials and net zero.

Using its strong convening power, the High Value Manufacturing Catapult is utilising its innovation capabilities to revolutionise skills and workforce delivery mechanisms in the UK industrial landscape. Working closely with the Department for Education (DfE), it brought industrial insight directly into education planning through the Emerging Skills Project.^[1] Building on this success, the High Value Manufacturing Catapult is now working with Innovate UK and other Catapults to expand this strategic role into other sectors. The new Workforce Foresighting Hub will help to ensure that the right training is available in the right places at the right times to deliver maximum UK impact.

Across the seven High Value Manufacturing Catapult centres, over 1,700 individuals make up one of the largest apprenticeship communities in the UK.

Since opening in 2013, the University of Sheffield AMRC Training Centre offers apprenticeships up to degree level and a portfolio of Continuing Professional Development courses delivered at local and national levels. These apprentice opportunities help to support local people, with South Yorkshire residents accounting for approximately 83% of all apprentices and help to increase social mobility and inclusion, with almost 27% of all learners living in areas of deprivation. Upon completion of apprenticeships, the highly skilled workers create a pipeline of suitable candidates for local businesses who are helping to drive growth in the region.

In the Midlands, MTC’s Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre offers forward-looking apprenticeships with a focus on smaller business skills needs.

[1] Developing the skills system for emerging technologies

The centre runs training programmes at the UKAEA, where they have delivered apprenticeships to more than 800 learners from facilities in Coventry and Oxfordshire. The programmes have received £1m investment a year until 2030 from Lloyds Bank. In partnership with Lloyds Bank and the West Midlands Combined Authority, the MTC has also developed a skills boot camp to help managers within the sector identify investment cases for introducing technology and associated skills.

Nearby at the University of Warwick, WMG runs a degree apprenticeship centre that connects opportunities from University Technical College through to Masters and Doctoral programmes, serving up to 1,000 students at a time. The degree apprenticeship programme was created alongside the University’s existing 20 programmes benefiting almost 800 students; one of the largest groups of degree apprenticeship courses at a Russell Group University.

In addition to offering apprenticeships in the North East, CPI also offers doctoral training to enhance PhD students’ exposure to real-life settings. CPI is also helping to develop new trailblazer standards in their technological fields, whilst NCC is doing similar work in the South West, specialising in the advancement of composites technicians and offering candidates composites conversion courses.

Multiple centres work with specialist academies, including the Yorkshire-based Nuclear AMRC, which works alongside the National Skills Academy for Nuclear to ensure training is aligned with the needs of the industry. And at their helm in Scotland, NMIS hosts the Manufacturing Skills Academy to offer advanced manufacturing training and development opportunities for individuals at any stage of their careers.

These examples cover just a proportion of the work that is ongoing at the High Value Manufacturing Catapult to drive industrial skills across the UK.

The Connected Places Catapult is the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport, and place leadership, working alongside key partners to accelerate innovation in the places where we live, work and travel. By assessing, predicting, mapping and delivering much-needed skills for the future, the Catapult is helping to overcome emerging gaps which threaten to impact success in this area of national importance.

In the Higher and Further Education sectors, the Connected Places Catapult is mapping existing skills capabilities and identifying academic partners who can help drive innovation through workforce development and thought leadership. By leveraging local and regional collaborations their work in this area is helping to develop sustainable clusters of economic activity.

The Connected Places Catapult works, most notably, alongside the Department for Transport (DfT) to review and report on skills shortfalls, challenges and trends within transport systems, and cross-sectoral areas including multi-modal freight, which involves moving goods using at least two methods of transportation. The Connected Places Catapult is involved in ongoing collaborative work with other Catapults and Innovate UK to develop an innovative approach to skills foresighting.

Future activities include engaging with Further Education colleges local to the UK’s first Station Innovation Zone at Bristol Temple Meads station. In Glasgow, the Catapult is supporting the Connected Airport Living Lab to develop a holistic vision of Glasgow Airport as a highly innovative net zero place, which plays an important part in developing the city region’s skills base and full economic potential. It aims to boost productivity and will accelerate decarbonisation of ground and air operations, including the electrification of flight, the use of hydrogen, automation data analytics and multi-modal connected surface-level access.

The Connected Places Catapult will also be providing support through industry participation to the Centre for Doctoral Training at the Universities of Cambridge, Nottingham and Newcastle on the Future of the Built Environment and Geospatial Systems.

The Future Aviation Security Solutions Industrial PhD Partnerships programme (FASS IPP) is bringing together academia and industry to focus on the future of aviation security. The Connected Places Catapult organised this competition to bring the UK’s leading academics together with businesses to develop new and exciting research projects, preparing for the future of aviation security. The scheme is a jointly funded programme by the DfT and the Home Office to further enhance the UK’s aviation security for the future. This will be done by funding new research in this area whilst also developing a pool of future leaders in the aviation security field.

Building on the Gemini Principles, established by the Centre for Digital Built Britain, the Digital Twin Hub at Connected Places Catapult is addressing the future of digital twin skills. The Hub is creating an Alliance of infrastructure owners and operators and working closely with education providers, including Cranfield University and the Open Data Institute (ODI), to create industry-ready training at several levels.

Within and across the transportation sector, thought leadership plays an important role in identifying where skills gaps exist. In areas such as digital twin technologies, future skills shortages may naturally emerge as innovation changes the requirements of the working environments and may also highlight the potential for skills transfer between complementary sectors.

Digital Catapult works with over 70 investors through the FutureScope acceleration programme to support UK innovators across AI, virtual & augmented reality, Internet of Things (IoT), 5G and distributed systems to work with strategic sectors of the UK economy to build private sector confidence.

FutureScope is based on best practice developed over seven years of experience running innovation and acceleration programmes, providing targeted support for startup and scaleup companies at different stages of their lifecycle – from early stage startups just entering the market, to those who are focused on pushing the limits of their technology capability, and later stage companies looking at Series A+ investment and beyond.

FutureScope helps startups and scaleups to collaborate across technologies, business stages, and markets – addressing real-world challenges in the UK’s manufacturing and creative industries, boosting private investor confidence in areas where the market has not been ready to invest, and focusing on strategically themed areas where digital transformation and emerging tech can have the biggest impact, such as industrial net zero, the metaverse, and supply chain optimisation.

Digital Catapult has collaborated with over 3,000 businesses, the majority being startups. A collective £555m in private investment has been raised by these businesses post-engagement with Digital Catapult, resulting in £4bn of wider economic benefit.

UK skills development should strike a balance between boosting technical skills, transferable skills and upskilling the existing workforce.

As part of the Digital Catapult led Made Smarter Digital Supply Chain Hub, the Future of Supply Chain Labs is being delivered by Deloitte & EDGE Digital Manufacturing. This programme will help UK SMEs develop skills and strategies, realising the potential of digitalising supply chains and increasing productivity and competitiveness through deep tech. So far, over 100 innovative businesses have been engaged, leveraging over £15m of investment to develop technology-led solutions to tackle supply chain problems and build adoption-ready use cases.

Digital Catapult’s FutureScope programme upskills UK tech entrepreneurs by developing knowledge of key emerging technologies (e.g. 5G, Quantum, AI) while Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow programme, delivered by Digital Catapult in 2021 and 2022, helps empower and upskill 16-25 year old future innovators in entrepreneurship, creative design and future tech. These challenge-led programmes are helping close the digital skills gap through retraining, upskilling and demystifying emerging technologies.

These partners then have the ability to embed new tech rapidly and to equip the future workforce with specialist skills early on, giving both entry-level and existing workers the ability to strengthen their careers.

In the North East, Digital Catapult led the Immex City programme, delivering a range of activities to support the scale-up potential of the North East’s immersive technologies sector and build on the region’s strengths in games and creative content. The programme supported cross-sector SME’s to develop immersive skills, enabling new understandings of the ways games engines can be applied in different business contexts.

Digital Catapult has launched new facilities to drive future skills for innovation and R&D activity in advanced media production (AMP). The AMP studios use motion and camera tracking, LED screens and real-time rendering engines to enable live-action experiences across the film, TV and broader creative sectors.

As technologies continue to converge, Digital Catapult is exploring how the skills needed for the UK’s creative and manufacturing industries are advancing, and what careers and skills requirements will emerge to ensure that these key sectors of the UK economy remain globally competitive.