While it’s clear there is a talent gap in the satcoms industry, there’s no shortage of young people with the right skills and mindset to fill it. This raises the question: how do we ensure young people are aware of the opportunities and that we create the right environment for them to grow within the industry?
We discussed this very issue in the latest SIG Grounded in Space podcast with experts in their field: Chris Dix, Babock; Gavin Cox, Global Invacom; Dave Davis, ST Engineering iDirect; and Jack Brown, University of Birmingham. In case you missed it, here’s a flavour of the conversation.
Career paths to satcom remain largely hidden
It is clear from the discussion that the problem is multi-faceted. On the one hand, there is a definite lack of certain skills, most notably around Radio Frequency (RF). As Gavin sees it, this is a “vacuum that we need to try and fill in the next five years”. On the other hand, while RF is being taught less at universities, engineering is still strong. According to Dave “while there is a really good cohort of engineers out there, whether they choose to come into the industry is another question”. Chris agrees that satcoms is not “a visible career path”, so while “the talent is there, it’s not necessarily coming into the sector”.
This comes in large part down to there being a lack of awareness about satcom as a career sector, which is not helped by satcom’s struggle to market itself effectively. As a PhD student in a STEM subject himself, Jack has first-hand experience of this, noting “I don’t think I’d heard of satcom as an industry until the second year of my PhD” and more broadly, he thinks that “people just don’t realize that [satcom] is a big thing and that there is opportunity there”. That said, Dave thinks we’re now on the cusp of change because of the effect that the proliferation of Starlink has had in raising awareness “as the industry gets bigger and more well known”.
There’s clearly a need to address the visibility issue and raise awareness of satcom so that people are inspired to pursue a career in the field. A multipronged approach is required. As Jack notes, having relatable role models is really important, “offering these to young graduates, and young people in school, is important if you want to drive people into the industry”. Mentoring also pays an important role in inspiring and supporting people to develop a career in satcom. This either be informal or as Dave said, “through organisations such as the Institute of Telecommunications Professionals, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, or the Women’s Engineering Society”. Industry supported projects and work placements are another great way to engage undergraduates to embark on a career in satcom. As Jack said, these give people “a flavour of what the actual job is like”.
Chris put it very succinctly when he said that we need to: “make the UK space sector visible as a career path, and then once it’s visible, make sure that it’s actually accessible as well so that students, at any age, or people even looking for a career change, can actually see what the space sector looks like, and know they can enter it at whichever stage they want to”.
Broad skillset needed
Of course, it’s not just RF and technical skills that are needed when people join the industry. As Chris mentioned, it’s a “broad challenge” because the skills gap extends beyond purely technical roles because there is also a demand for talent with expertise in project management, commercial aspects and legislation and regulation. This highlights how important it is that young people and those with transferable skills who are looking for new opportunities outside of their current sector, are given the confidence that their skills are relevant. This comes back to how satcom markets itself at every touchpoint, and as Jack explained, this includes how jobs are advertised. He highlighted how important it is that job adverts be written in a way that does not put potential applicants off applying because they feel their skills are not relevant. Equally, he thinks that while certain technical knowledge may be required for roles, perhaps the industry could be more open to the fact that “there are things that you can learn through the job itself that you don’t necessarily need beforehand”.
Although there aren’t specific undergraduate degrees available in satcom, a lot of STEM subjects have elements of satcoms within them. What’s most important is that people that join the industry have the right engineering mindset. As Gavin explained, what’s important is that applicants can “look at something, analyse a problem, try and draw conclusions from it, and then extrapolate from that”. Chris agrees that “while a degree is obviously very important, people can achieve a degree at any stage in life, whereas an engineering mindset is something that comes to a person quite early on”. He went on to give a great example of a transfer of skills into the industry with an apprentice who used to be a hairdresser and is now training to be a nuclear welder, transferring skills such as hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.
Alongside a broad skillset, Dave feels that: “flexibility and the ability to change throughout your career is also crucial because the rate of change of technology is faster now than it’s ever been”. He sees apprenticeships as playing an important part in bringing in different skill sets to the industry, particularly because they can attract people from non-traditional backgrounds that are likely to bring different skills to those from a traditional engineering background.
Engagement and outreach
Engagement and outreach activities are obviously a critical part of engaging the next generation of satcom engineers. Much of the typical engagement that happens within schools comes about through informal conversation between schools and parent networks. There is no structured formal scheme in place that satcom professionals can register with that can proactively approach schools to offer industry engagement. Jack explained that this is “where universities can help a lot because they have their own public engagement teams covering school outreach… so the links are all there, the dots just need to be connected”.
Initiatives such as UKROC, CanSat and science research initiative ORBYTS also help to inspire young people in STEM by getting them involved in competitions, but schools need to commit to be involved, which can be difficult when they have such heavy curriculums to get through. Whatever form it takes, as Chris says, “the industry can definitely step up to engage with students at all levels, to create projects, and do general outreach”. Dave agrees, adding that everyone in satcom should “get out there, get amongst their local community, start [engaging people] young, and just educate, inform, inspire, and influence that next generation”.
Key takeaway
There’s clearly a lot of different projects ongoing, but there does seem to be a lack of coordination. We need to be better aligned, and this is only going to be achievable if the industry as a whole takes a more coordinated approach and works more closely with academia and education institutions. The will is certainly there so if we all work together more effectively, our combined efforts could have a massive effect.
You can listen to the Grounded in Space podcast in full here.