Defence - A Skills Opportunity

The aim is simple: connect defence investment with local people so we create high-skilled jobs, stronger career pathways, and real opportunities across our communities.

It sets out how we can build a Defence, Security & Advanced Technology Corridor, linking places like Portsmouth, Farnborough, and the Solent while investing in skills, training, and access so that residents can benefit.

Because backing defence isn’t just about national security, it’s about backing places like Hampshire and Solent, supporting good jobs, and building a stronger local economy for the future.

Executive summary

Devolution (Combined Authority) gives Hampshire and the Solent the tools to align defence-led growth with inclusive skills delivery. By connecting industry corridors with community access, we can create a resilient, high-skill regional workforce that supports both national security and local opportunity. There are three interlinking opportunities for the region: UKRI Local Innovation Partnership Funds, Technical Excellence College, and newly announced energetics investment.

Hampshire and the Solent region stand at a pivotal moment for UK defence, innovation, and economic renewal. Hampshire has been formally identified by the Ministry of Defence as one of 12 priority locations for a new energetics factory, placing the region at the heart of the UK’s sovereign munitions strategy.

This White Paper integrates the energetics factory opportunity with regional industrial strategy, devolved skills reform, key innovation clusters, and advanced technology sectors, positioning the region as the UK's leading.  The Defence, Security & Advanced Technology Corridor spans Portsmouth (naval & maritime), Farnborough (aerospace & drones), the Isle of Wight, and Southampton (advanced composites), as well as the proposed opportunity for a Hampshire energetics facility and College accreditation in Munitions (Sparsholt). This creates a coherent, scalable regional innovation and defence capability. The region offers supply chain readiness, FE/HE capability, R&D assets, defence-sponsored clusters, and an existing base of high-hazard and systems engineering skills.

The White Paper is also explicit that Strategic Authorities and Skills England will drive a place-based, employer-led approach to skills (including joint ownership of LSIPs and regionally delivered Sector Skills Packages). For Hampshire & the Solent, this is an opportunity to build a coordinated local skills and job ecosystem focused on defence, security, and advanced technology. While also considering more localised barriers (attainment inequality, deprivation, and travel to learn).

Strategic Priorities

·         Establish a Defence, Security & Advanced Technology Corridor, with a Dual-Use skills network to increase job and innovation opportunities across other sectors.

·         Develop a Defence & Security Technical Excellence College (TEC).

·         Build FE/HE capacity in automation, cyber, robotics, and high-hazard operations.

·         Address regional deprivation and access barriers through a Hub & Spoke learning model.

·         Integrate MOD opportunity with DSIT-recognised innovation clusters and regional defence

alliances.

·         Establish a Defence, Security, Energetics & Advanced Technologies Jobs Plan under LSIP

governance.

·         Expand modular, higher technical pathways (L4/5) in AI, cyber, systems engineering, and

robotics.

·         Use the Growth & Skills Levy (apprenticeship units) and the Defence Technical Excellence

College offers as levers to fund short, stacked credentials and level 4/5 pathways.

·         Push for early inclusion in the Lifelong Learning Entitlement subject lists.

·         Review assets and land across MOD and educational providers, map local hubs

Skills Strategy & Workforce Development

Energetics & Munitions Skills Pathways

·         Energetic materials chemistry

·         Propellants manufacturing & explosives and high-hazard safety and compliance

·         High-hazard operations

·         Robotics & automation in munitions manufacturing

·         Systems engineering & regulatory compliance

·         Digital twins, modelling & simulation

Dual-Use Skills for Defence & Advanced Technology

·         AI, cyber security, data analytics

·         Autonomous systems and drones

·         Advanced composites engineering

·         Maritime, aerospace, and space systems

·         Sustainability and green defence technologies

·         Sciences

Upskills and Employer support

·         Military and service personnel

·         Transferring and upskilling

·         Digital and AI technologies

·         STEM and system engineering bridging pathways

Tackling Inequality & Entry

A Hub & Spoke learning model will reduce transport barriers and support inclusive access. Community-based hubs, mobile labs, and employer sites will host modular, blended learning pathways to support disadvantaged communities in Gosport, Havant, the Isle of Wight, and rural Hampshire.

Target foundational skills and NEET prevention in deprived wards: The White Paper flags regional variation in foundation skills and introduces the Youth Guarantee + NEET risk tools; regions will need local plans.

·         Align Local Growth Plans / Get Britain Working plans (across Solent growth & HPPB) to deliver foundation English, maths, and digital in context (task-based delivery within defence/health bootcamps). Work with employers to introduce cross-sector foundation apprentices in dual skills sectors.   

Reduce travel barriers — a ‘Hub & Spoke’ learning geography

·         Test a network of small delivery hubs (employer sites, civic buildings, mobile labs) plus blended learning and modular day-release, with targeted travel bursaries/childcare stipends for disadvantaged learners. Use Skills Bootcamps and short apprenticeship units to deliver training in workplaces and at local hubs.

Build employer co-investment and sector coalitions

The White Paper expects employers to co-invest and for Skills England to broker sector coalitions and Jobs Plans. Hampshire & Solent must mobilise anchor employers to crowd in private funding.

·         Work with the defence and Maritime clusters (coordinated with Industrial Strategy Zone activity where relevant) that bundle employer contributions, capital bids (for simulator labs/workshop space), and training placements.

Strengthen FE capacity & quality through regional improvement support

Regional Improvement Teams and TECs are core routes the government offers to raise FE capacity and quality. Hampshire and the Solent should map which colleges could host a regional specialist or partner with a Defence TEC or Hub model of experts as a dual skills model package.

·         Work with Regional Improvement Teams to upskill FE staff in defence-related specialisms.

·         Create a Technical Excellence partnership with defence employers and local colleges

(mirroring the Defence Technical College model).

·         Cross-sector benefits: Secondary skills demand in health resilience, emergency services, cyber

security, and logistics.

·         Challenges: Workforce ageing, low participation in L4/5 pathways, pockets of deprivation

(Gosport, Havant, IOW), and transport barriers.

Conclusion

Hampshire and the Solent have a long-standing history of defence, maritime, and advanced engineering excellence. From centuries of naval shipbuilding and boatbuilding in Portsmouth and the Solent, to aerospace innovation in Farnborough and composites manufacturing on the Isle of Wight, the region has been central to the UK’s defence and industrial capabilities for generations.

This legacy spanning naval architecture, marine engineering, propulsion systems, high-performance composites, defence research, and advanced manufacturing provides a strong foundation for the next era of sovereign capability. The region’s existing defence clusters, universities, and FE/HE providers are built upon this historic industrial base, giving Hampshire and the Solent a unique platform to lead the UK’s modern defence, energetics, and advanced technology strategy.

By aligning MOD investment with FE/HE capability, innovation clusters, and devolved skills powers, the region can deliver high-value jobs, sovereign manufacturing capacity, and inclusive economic renewal, ensuring that its historic role in national defence continues with renewed scale and purpose.

Author Zoe Huggins B.E.M