20 Nov 2025

Closing the digital skills gap: collaboration, scaling and innovation

Guest blog by Ben Tucker at QinetiQ #DefTechWeek2025

Ben Tucker

Social Value Manager, QinetiQ

The UK is coming to a skills cliff edge.

The need for skilled workers has never been higher, with the recent Skills Whitepaper showing that “skills shortage vacancies make up over a quarter of all vacancies” and a staggering “7.3 million lack the essential digital skills required for the workplace.”

And this is being particularly felt within the Defence Ecosystem. As laid out in the Defence Industrial Strategy: “Shortages in critical defence industrial skills, particularly in STEM, are constraining our supply chains, limiting investment across the UK economy and risking our ability to remain at the forefront of technological innovation.”

But skills development is a “wicked problem.” We live in a complex world (with a threat landscape that is only growing more complex!) and there is no silver bullet. The answer doesn’t lie in the Gatsby benchmarks, the Regional Skills Plans, the qualifications and curriculum reviews, or the industry working groups. The answer lies in all of the above—and more!

To support the UK’s amazing young people to develop the skills that are needed today, and for 2035, takes collaboration. It takes industry, HMG, and the education sector to roll up our collective sleeves and bias for action.

Yes, the threat landscape is live. But I am delighted to say the action to support the UK develop these skills is already well underway.

Collaborate. Innovate. Upskill.

Here at QinetiQ we are passionate about training and skills. We deliver a wide range of STEM outreach from across our UK sites—from hosting cadets, working with great charities like the John Eggins Trust and Futures for All, to showcasing our cutting-edge facilities to the next generation, such as at our PowerBoat Challenge.

But they are all built on similar principles: we look to collaborate, scale, and innovate to have the most impact.

How does this work in practice?

Collaborate

Over the last four years, QinetiQ has partnered with the fantastic IN4 Group, who lead CyberFirst Schools & Colleges delivery across the North West and West Midlands. Their impactful programmes have engaged with over 14,000 students since 2021, all focused on building digital skills.

For us at QinetiQ, it was important for us to partner with someone locally—someone who understood the landscape and the community needs—so collectively we could have the most impact.

“At IN4, we work closely with schools and students across our regions to build an impactful programme that develops digital skills. The Defence and Security Sector is one of many our students aren’t aware of, so having QinetiQ as one of our founding Apex Partners has been fantastic to bring the sector to life. We really appreciate QinetiQ’s support, along with all of our industry partners, for bringing their passion and insight into classrooms around the North West and the West Midlands.”

Lauren Monks, IN4 Group Director

This partnership has allowed In4 to widen their impact and being able to see more young people, and for QinetiQ it has allowed us to engage the hardest to reach communities &

Scaling

Equally, there have been times where we have seen things that are working well and thought: how can we scale to enhance the impact?

For example, this summer QinetiQ took on NCSC’s ‘CyberFirst Advanced’ and innovated the model so it can be delivered across the country through a Hub and Spoke Model.

The new format saw students interested in developing their cyber skills attend the four-day course at the University of Greenwich, the University of West of England, Lancaster University, and QinetiQ’s offices in Malvern. Together, the students were introduced to encryption technologies and digital forensics, while giving them the opportunity to hear directly from experts across the industry and undertake real-world tasks using Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and penetration testing.

James Willis, Chief Executive Officer, QinetiQ UK Intelligence, said:

“Young people are the future of our national security and at QinetiQ we are proud to be delivering a vital programme to inspire the next generation of cyber security experts. The CyberFirst Advanced course has been a great success, introducing students to advanced technologies, giving them access to experts from across the industry and bringing to life this critically important industry.”

Chris Ensor, Deputy Director Cyber Growth, National Cyber Security Centre, said:

“We’re incredibly grateful to QinetiQ for their innovative hub-and-spoke delivery model for the CyberFirst Advanced courses. This exciting approach not only expands access to high-quality cyber education, but also sets a powerful example of how collaboration and creativity can help scale CyberFirst opportunities across the UK. We hope others will be inspired to adopt and build on this model in the future.”

This model is highly scalable; we look forward to growing and expanding the course over the coming years! If you are a HEI and are interested in getting involved – do reach out.

Innovating

Equally our academic partnerships are crucial. They combine deep specialties with the practical challenges that defence and security users face every day to help bring ideas from laboratory to real world use. By working together

In one example, QinetiQ worked with Exeter University computer scientists and archeologists to improve identification of fingerprints on shiny, curved and transparent surfaces without the use of chemical contaminants and powders. Similarly, working university partners we developed an Extended Reality (XR) demonstrator. You can read about these here: https://www.exeter.ac.uk/research/networks/defence/research/defencedatamachinelearningandai/ and here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10055-025-01170-9.

This type of work builds both skills and solutions for security and defence applications, and importantly allows the next generation of Defence Grads to get hands on exposure to solving real world problems.

That is just a few of a myriad of examples from QinetiQ, but I know there are plenty of others across the ecosystem doing exactly the same: BAE delivering fantastic STEM outreach in Barrow, Northrop Grumman’s work with CodeFirstGirls, or Airbus’ Space Outreach. The list could go on and on.

The Defence Industrial Strategy isn’t just a policy—it’s a rallying cry. By building a pipeline of talent today, we secure the technologies of tomorrow. The future of UK defence depends on our ability to collaborate, scale and innovate. These aren’t just buzzwords; they’re the foundation of our security and prosperity. Let’s roll up our sleeves and make it happen—because the future won’t wait.

Operationalising DefTech campaign week 2025 #DefTechWeek2025

techUK has launched its Operationalising DefTech 2025 campaign week, highlighting how emerging technologies can strengthen defence capability and accelerate innovation across the sector. The campaign showcases member insights, practical use cases, and opportunities to collaborate on the future of defence technology.

Read them here

Operationalising DefTech: Defence campaign week launch

Launching techUK’s Defence Campaign Week, Operationalising DefTech, techUK is pleased to welcome John Cunningham, the Director of UK Defence Innovation within the Ministry of Defence to brief members on MOD’s evolving approach to new technologies, alongside the co-founder of Anduril Industries Christian Brose, and Sara Sharkey from Prolinx.

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