Alliance for Strategic Skills addressing Emerging Technologies in Defence

Currently, more than three-quarters of companies in the European Union report difficulties in finding workers with the necessary skills, while only 37% of adults participate in regular training. The Defence sector is no exception to this trend. The rapid pace of technological evolution is drastically changing the labour market. Developing educational content for the workforce of the near future is essential. Furthermore, many misconceptions surround defence activities; however, this industry consistently operates at the forefront of innovation, offering the most advanced technologies and a highly international and multidisciplinary environment. The ASSETs+ project aims to dispel the myths and biases associated with the defence sector while designing new courses and challenges that effectively capture students’ attention.

RMA will co-develop a Defence Technology Roadmap, mapping key enabling technologies and defence-related applications; create a Skills Blueprint, classifying skills and job profiles for Defence technologies; Establish a Body of Knowledge, featuring an ontology of technologies, skills, knowledge, and jobs for defence; Develop a Strategy for developing human resources in the Defence sector, including an action plan on skills to enhance EU Defence capabilities; Design education and training programmes, by incorporating a pedagogical and technical framework for courses on Defence technologies; Develop education and training prototype programmes to ensure the advancement of human resources for Defence.

The ASSETs+ Defence Related Skills Project reinforced the human resource supply chain in the defence-related sector by developing a comprehensive strategy which operates at different levels to create, develop an upskill defence-wise students focusing on digital technologies (namely: robotics, autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, C4ISTAR and cybersecurity).

This project was funded by the EU project ASSETs+ Project (Alliance for Strategic Skills addressing Emerging Technologies in Defence) EAC/A03/2018 - Erasmus+ programme, Sector Skills Alliances.