Nearly all (97%) of organisations in the UK space sector with skills gaps say there’s been knock-on impacts to their business performance and growth, with 71% describing those impacts as major or moderate.

These are just two of the insights gleaned from the Space Sector Skills Survey 2023, a new report commissioned by the UK Space Agency (UKSA) and the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT), to understand the prevalence — and the consequent challenges — of the industry’s ongoing skills gap.

The data underpinning the newly published report is derived from a 51-question survey and 21 structured interviews, conducted between April and June this year. Over 200 organisations — including companies, government bodies, universities, and third-sector groups — responded. The responses represent around 12% of space-oriented organisations within the UK, employing roughly 35% of the country’s space workforce.

The survey’s findings highlighted that the supply of skilled and experienced workers isn’t keeping pace with the rate at which the industry is growing, having doubled in income during the last decade from £8.3 billion in 2009 to £17.5 billion in 2021.

Specifically, over half (52%) of organisations situated in the UK space sector reported skills gaps in their current workforce. These gaps are a result of difficulties in hiring new staff (48%), new staff not yielding the necessary skills (45%), and existing staff leaving their roles (34%). The gaps have then led to an array of issues, such as an increased workload for the remaining workforce, and delays in product development.

In terms of where the gaps in skills actually lie for organisations, 72% have a gap in software and data skills, which is markedly higher than any other technical area, such as electronics design (43%) and systems engineering (39%). Half of organisations expect that their space skill needs will differ in three years’ time, with 81% of these respondents expecting they will need more software and data skills.

However, the current need and difficulties in hiring for software-, data-, and engineering-focused roles are reflected in job vacancy rates, with software, data, and systems engineering roles together making up nearly half (49%) of all vacancies. Senior roles are especially harder to recruit for, and also take longer to fill.

In terms of recruitment issues — and aside from applicants lacking the required specialist expertise and qualifications — competition for talent from companies both in (45%) and outwith (68%) the space sector was cited as a major cause of difficulties. Similarly, uncompetitive pay is another significant issue (39%).

In a bid to secure the skills they need, a number of organisations have looked outwardly — just over a third (36%) of companies have tried to hire from outside the UK, with more large- (58%) and medium-sized (56%) organisations doing so compared to small (38%) and micro (16%) ones. Of the companies that tried to recruit from other countries, 83% faced difficulties, including high costs and the complexity of the visa process. At 21%, just over one fifth were not successful in recruiting from abroad.

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The report ultimately concluded that the core issues impacting the UK’s space sector have not changed, and that the scale and significance of them have increased. According to the report, many of the respondents identified a need for a skills gap-related plan from the UK Space Agency.

“The UK space sector is not achieving its potential. The sector’s ability to innovate, scale-up, and deliver next generation solutions to today’s problems is being throttled by access to the diverse skill sets it needs to face these challenges,” noted Doug Liddle, the chair of the Space Skills Advisory Panel and the vice chair of UKspace.

He also wrote that “Unlocking this growth in the UK space sector requires a skilled workforce fuelled by a pipeline of talent and world-leading training provision. Addressing skills gaps and recruitment challenges are therefore a key priority for both government and industry.”

Professor Anu Ohja OBE, the director of championing space at UKSA, corroborated: “We need differentiated programmes with focused interventions that engage with the widest possible audience, from young people of all ages, teachers, academics, and professionals at each career stage of the future and current space workforce.

“All of which must be developed in pro-active partnership with academia and the sector organisations for which, as the survey highlights, skills issues are major factors in determining future growth, prosperity, and impact.”

In response to the pervasive issue, Liddle reaffirmed a future cross-collaborative effort to alleviate the sector’s skill gap, stating: “A notable piece of feedback was a desire for more clarity from government on how it plans to address these challenges, so I am delighted that early next year the UK Space Agency, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and the Space Partnership will be jointly co-developing the Space Workforce Action Plan detailing the concrete next steps we will take in this area.”