Space Industry Skills
Gap
(Mid Norfolk) (Con)
3. What steps her Department is taking to tackle the space
industry skills gap.
The Minister for Science, Research and Innovation ()
Delivering a national space strategy is a key priority for me and
the Department. I recognise that a strong space workforce is
critical to this, and my hon. Friend will be pleased to know that
we will be publishing a space workforce action plan later this
year.
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his answer and for his work
on this. He knows, as I do, that the innovation economy in this
country is creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs. Indeed,
500,000 are forecast over the next 10 years in space, agritech,
cleantech engineering and bio, in clusters all around the
country, as the recent cluster map showed. Will he ensure that
the excellent Department for Education future skills unit liaises
closely with the Department for Science, Innovation and
Technology cluster team to make sure that we are properly
building the job creation plans into the local skills improvement
plans on the ground?
My hon. Friend has done so much to advance the interests of
skills in the sector during his many years of public service, and
he is quite right to draw attention to the successful cluster map
that was launched by the Secretary of State 10 days ago. The
development of skills is a shared responsibility between
Government and industry and we take our responsibilities in that
respect very seriously.
(Caithness, Sutherland and
Easter Ross) (LD)
I want to put on record my thanks to the hon. Member for Mid
Norfolk () for having taken the
Sutherland spaceport to where it is. It is now well under way.
Does the Minister agree that the skills we have at Dounreay and
at the nearby Thurso College could play a large part in making
this a centre of excellence for space launch?
I do agree with the hon. Gentleman. This is a very exciting
moment in UK space, and he has long championed the cause of his
own constituents in that respect. I look forward to this year
being a very successful year for him and the whole space supply
chain, and inspiring a future generation locally.
