Talent search must begin early for UK’s plan to become space leader
18 July 2014
The government’s plan to make the UK a world leader in the next stages of space flight development has been greeted with raised eyebrows by some specialist recruiters.
Fri, 18 Jul 2014The government’s plan to make the UK a world leader in the next stages of space flight development has been greeted with raised eyebrows by some specialist recruiters.
The Department for Transport undersecretary Robert Goodwill made the announcement following Lockheed Martin's decision earlier this week to set up a space office in Oxford with an initial 10 vacancies.
“Predictably as the cost of building small satellites falls, the demand for them is rising,” said Goodwill earlier this week. “This means that we currently have a queue of companies waiting for a launch for their small satellites. We need more launches.”
The minister said that by 2030 the government rocket programmes that have been the workhorses of the last 50 years will be competing with new, lower-cost services to meet the needs of the growing space sector.
And, as a result, spaceflight can be expected to increasingly move from being a nationalised industry towards private commerce.
Commercial spaceflight has an estimated global market of £40bn by 2030. Now, Britain’s aerospace industry is already thriving and the space sector is also growing fast, he added.
Mark Stephens, founding director at F10 Recruitment, which provides IT and engineering staff to companies in the US, South America and the UK, told Recruiter the government’s plans were ambitious and needed to have its unswerving support.
“Britain has an outstanding reputation for high-tech engineering R&D [research and development] and are already major contributors to the majority of major space and satellite programmes across Europe,” says Stephens.
“However, if the UK government is serious about making the UK world leaders in space flight technology, they will need to think about how they will address the biggest challenges facing them.”
Stephens adds that the recruitment industry would also face challenges if the government’s target were to be met.
“Finding the resources that have the skills and experience required will be high on the agenda. Any grass roots programme to encourage the best talent leaving education to choose a career in this sector needs to get underway well ahead of when that talent will be required and needs to be sustained and properly financed,” he says.
“Public-funded projects in this sector are notoriously slow, expensive and littered with red tape, that places them at a distinct disadvantage when targeting existing talent already operating within the sector and that includes the ability to match or improve upon the remuneration levels that privately funded projects enjoy.
“We have the infrastructure to build upon in order to achieve these goals, but will this government or the next have the stomach to commit fully and maintain that commitment.”
The Department for Transport undersecretary Robert Goodwill made the announcement following Lockheed Martin's decision earlier this week to set up a space office in Oxford with an initial 10 vacancies.
“Predictably as the cost of building small satellites falls, the demand for them is rising,” said Goodwill earlier this week. “This means that we currently have a queue of companies waiting for a launch for their small satellites. We need more launches.”
The minister said that by 2030 the government rocket programmes that have been the workhorses of the last 50 years will be competing with new, lower-cost services to meet the needs of the growing space sector.
And, as a result, spaceflight can be expected to increasingly move from being a nationalised industry towards private commerce.
Commercial spaceflight has an estimated global market of £40bn by 2030. Now, Britain’s aerospace industry is already thriving and the space sector is also growing fast, he added.
Mark Stephens, founding director at F10 Recruitment, which provides IT and engineering staff to companies in the US, South America and the UK, told Recruiter the government’s plans were ambitious and needed to have its unswerving support.
“Britain has an outstanding reputation for high-tech engineering R&D [research and development] and are already major contributors to the majority of major space and satellite programmes across Europe,” says Stephens.
“However, if the UK government is serious about making the UK world leaders in space flight technology, they will need to think about how they will address the biggest challenges facing them.”
Stephens adds that the recruitment industry would also face challenges if the government’s target were to be met.
“Finding the resources that have the skills and experience required will be high on the agenda. Any grass roots programme to encourage the best talent leaving education to choose a career in this sector needs to get underway well ahead of when that talent will be required and needs to be sustained and properly financed,” he says.
“Public-funded projects in this sector are notoriously slow, expensive and littered with red tape, that places them at a distinct disadvantage when targeting existing talent already operating within the sector and that includes the ability to match or improve upon the remuneration levels that privately funded projects enjoy.
“We have the infrastructure to build upon in order to achieve these goals, but will this government or the next have the stomach to commit fully and maintain that commitment.”
