Leading UK defence manufacturer BAE Systems is using its resources as a large employer to boost skills within small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within its supply chain, the company’s group managing director for programmes and support said this morning.

Nigel Whitehead told a gathering of representatives from engineering and manufacturing organisations that large companies needed to think about their roles as such “to help smaller companies and help them raise their game” as the UK struggles to get to grips with skills gaps.

In BAE Systems’ case, Whitehead said the company was training more people than it actually needed to inject wider skills knowledge into the SMEs.

Whitehead was among the panellists debating the agenda needed to drive advanced science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) skills development and training forward in the UK. In his opening remarks, BAE Systems chairman Dick Olver noted that half of the new jobs in 2020 will require STEM subjects.

The panel broadly agreed that business must broadly take a leading role in driving the STEM agenda forward. One audience member commented: “The people with their hand on the tiller of this ship [now] are wobbling it everywhere.”

BAE Systems is recruiting 150 STEM graduates for its Detica cyber security business this year and 200 next year. Its submarine business in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, will recruit 200 skilled engineers and project managers to work on the design and build of the successor submarine to the Vanguard Class, which is currently scheduled to enter service in 2028.