Memorandum 65
Submission from the Society of British
Aerospace Companies
1. THE AEROSPACE
AND DEFENCE
INDUSTRY-AN
INDUSTRY BASED
ON ENGINEERING
1.1 SBAC is the UK's national trade association
representing companies supplying civil air transport, aerospace
defence, homeland security and space markets. SBAC encompasses
the British Airports Group and UKspace. Together with its regional
partners, SBAC represents over 2,600 companies across the UK supply
chain, and assists them through facilitating innovation and competitiveness
and providing regulatory services.
1.2 SBAC welcomes the House of Commons Innovation,
Universities and Skills Committee's inquiry examining the concerns
of the UK's engineering community. The UK Aerospace industry is
globally competitive and has a strong reliance on a highly skilled
workforce. It directly employs 124,000 people, of whom 80,000
are engineers or engineering technicians (one tenth of the UK
engineering workforce of 800,000[243]).
Gross Value Added (GVA) per employee for the Aerospace industry
at £74,000 is also the highest of any sector of engineering.
1.3 Aerospace is an attractive and growing
industrial sector. Globally the top 100 companies generated sales
in excess of $480 billion in 2006 with growth currently running
at approximately 5% per annum. UK Aerospace manufacturing is globally
competitive and exports 63% of its total sales. In 2006, UK companies
had a turnover of £20 billion and secured more than £26
billion of new orders.
1.4 The Aerospace and Defence industry,
alongside pharmaceuticals, provides important balance to the UK
economy and sustains high value careers in engineering, research
and design. It is a manufacturing industry which is continually
growing. Currently, 34% of the industry's employees hold a university
degree or equivalent. This percentage is forecasted to increase
to 40% by 2010. The industry also has 2% (2,600) of its workforce
made up of apprentices.
1.5 Average salaries in the sector are £33,645-43%
higher than the UK average and 31% above the manufacturing average.
In many parts of the country, particularly the south west, east
midlands, north west and north east, this means Aerospace is one
of the highest value uses of labour and makes a significant contribution
to regional economies. With approximately two thirds of the Aerospace
workforce made up of engineers, the services which they provide
are being both recognised and rewarded.
1.6 Research, development and new technology
are incredibly important for long term competitiveness in the
Aerospace industry. The sector is one of the most R&D intensive
sectors in the UK economy and invests £2.5 billion per annum,
second only to the pharmaceutical industry. A highly trained engineering
workforce is crucial in insuring that the UK is able to maintain
and raise current levels of manufacturing excellence on a world
scale.
1.7 The Aerospace and Defence industry is
committed to innovation, new technology and continuous improvement
in engineering to address the challenges of environment, security
and sustainability.
1.8 UK Aerospace and Defence engineers have
a key role in developing new technology that both maintains the
UK's position as a world leader and delivers solutions to counter
the challenges of Climate Change. Through projects like the Environmentally
Friendly Engine programme and the Integrated Wing programme, which
rely on UK engineers from the inception of the first idea to the
maintenance of the end project, the UK will be able to deliver
the necessary research and innovation that will reduce aviation's
environmental impact.
2. SUPPORT FOR
ENGINEERS THROUGH
THE NATIONAL
AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY
STRATEGY
2.1 The Aerospace industry is a manufacturing
based industry; the UK's strength is based on world-class technology
built up by industry in partnership with government. The National
Aerospace Technology Strategy (NATS) has been created to assist
the many processes that support the industry's long term health.
The NATS details commitments that must be made by the UK Aerospace
& Defence industry, and as such it is a tool that is useful
in the development of an engineering workforce capable of meeting
the long-term aspirations of the industry. NATS details product
lifecycles and produces technology roadmaps governed by global
market drivers; its proliferation of long-term programmes at the
heart of the industry shows that Aerospace engineering is a constant
source of opportunity. Long careers are highly probable as a result
of products being constantly subject to revision, maintenance
and upgrade. To help facilitate the recruitment drive needed to
achieve this workforce, the NATS Technology Roadmaps supports
the demand signal (as articulated in the Leitch Report) for which
skills will be needed at certain points in the future.
2.2 Product lifecycles ensure that engineering
is a constant source of opportunity, as demands for improved components/sub-streams
of technologies are fed back to the science base, leading to more
application of research and technology, and manufacturing, for
the engineering workforce. As a result of this, engineers can
look forward to long careers in the Aerospace industry, as products
are constantly subject to modification, upgrade and technology
insertions.
3. ENGINEERS
DRIVE AEROSPACE
RESEARCH AND
INNOVATION
3.1 The figure below details the Aerospace
Technology Life-Cycle spanning 40 years, and highlights the significant
opportunities for engineers throughout the development of a large
scale project. New technologies can take up to 15 years to progress
from the concept stage to product application and this underscores
the importance of maintaining the right skills base throughout
the life of a product.
3.2 It is said that the Aerospace and Defence
sector utilises more science than any other sector, a statement
borne out by the diagram below:
3.3 R&D is vital in implementing various
emerging technologies that will maintain and strengthen the UK's
position within the global Aerospace market. Due to the global
nature of the sector, technologies engineered in the UK will benefit
not only the UK, but also global markets. These same technologies
will also require constant maintenance service and upgrades throughout
their long working lives; these services will be provided by many
of the engineers that were responsible for the products' creation,
as well as specialist maintenance engineers.
4. ENGINEERING
SKILLS: ATTRACTING
ENGINEERS TO
THE AEROSPACE
INDUSTRY
4.1 The Aerospace and Defence industry realises
that there is a need to make the educational system aware of engineering
as a career from an early stage, and to continue these reminders
throughout the educational process. Individual industry members
have set into operation a variety of programmes designed to promote
Aerospace engineering from the age of 9 until graduate level.
4.2 Education: In promoting the quality
of mathematics and science teaching, the Aerospace industry took
the initiative by providing the initial corporate sponsors for
the National Science Learning Centre at the University of York.
This centre provides further training and development for science
and mathematics teachers at the pre-university level. Other programmes
such as road-shows, which demonstrate the exciting prospects of
engineering, science, technology and manufacturing and their relevance
to every day-to-day life have been in operation for some years.
Industry has further supported teachers, through schemes such
as "School Ambassadors". These industry representatives
give an insight into how the Aerospace works on its differing
levels, as well as aiding teachers in their curriculum development
and delivery. Many Aerospace companies have also set up educational
websites, which supply curriculum materials, engineering careers
advice as well as information about work experience.
4.3 Apprentices: SBAC members support
and operate some of the largest UK engineering apprenticeship
programmes. As an industry, we employ over 2, 500 apprentices,
which the Aerospace and Defence industry aims to be educated up
to NVQ Level 3. Those apprentices who succeed and excel during
the scheme can often expect to be supported and encouraged by
their organisation to further achievement in higher education.
4.4 SBAC supports the Government's initiative
to encourage apprenticeships, and would urge them to expand their
campaigns to advise young people on the advantages of an apprenticeship
route in aerospace as a good route into engineering.
4.5 Graduate Programmes: The Aerospace
and Defence industry recognises that engineering graduates possess
skills and knowledge that make them attractive across a range
of other sectors. Therefore UK engineering needs to maintain its
attractive position as an interesting, stable and financially
rewarding career option.
4.6 In the face of competing areas, such
as finance sectors, or even engineering organisations based overseas,
it is imperative that UK industry still attracts the brightest
candidates. The industry already operates a number of Graduate
Programmes. These are often organisation based schemes, building
on the skills acquired at university and enhancing their effectiveness
as engineers. Together with the recommendations based in the Leitch
Review of Skills (2006), Aerospace is preparing itself for
tackling the challenges ahead.
4.7 Leitch Review: According to the
Leitch Review, 29% of adults hold a degree or equivalent qualification.
In the Aerospace industry the percentage of employees who have
a degree or equivalent is 34%. Highly qualified individuals are
encouraged and attracted by the industry to join, and are critical
to the success of the UK as a high-skills economy. The recommendations
from Leitch are for 40% of the general population to hold a degree
by 2020. The proportion of Aerospace employees holding degrees
will surpass this recommendation, with 40% of employees set to
hold a degree as early as 2010.
4.8 A key principle of the Leitch Review
was to streamline the transition between academia and industry,
and to implement a demand-led attitude to training. A demand-led
approach will enable the academic community to deliver the qualifications
and skills which are needed by industry. Through working with
the Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing
Technologies (SEMTA) and the National Skills Academy for Manufacturing
(NSAM) in developing a Strategic Workforce Planning tool, employers
will be able to influence the direction of learning and training
for the next generation of engineers. In the case of the Aerospace
and Defence industry, this means engineers are trained at a university
level with the specific intention of fitting into an existing/emerging
programme, rather than being trained in the hope of finding a
programme within which they can fit retroactively.
4.9 National Skills Academy for Manufacturing:
Of the 11 NSAM corporate partners, 5 are from the field of Aerospace
and Defence. These are: Rolls-Royce, Airbus, Corus, GKN and BAE
Systems. This population of Aerospace companies again highlights
the concerted effort being made by the industry to evolve the
UK skills base into one that is globally competitive.
4.10 The presence of major Aerospace industry
figures within NSAM indicates how necessary it is for the industry
to maintain a high quality workforce to sustain our position as
the second largest Aerospace industry in the world, and as one
of the most profitable sectors in the UK.
4.11 Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul
(MRO) is itself one of the largest sub sectors within UK Aerospace,
and it is critical that a well-established skills base for MRO
is maintained and nurtured within the UK to ensure the short and
long term strength of the industry as a whole.
4.12 MRO engineering is also a lucrative
revenue generator in its own right; the expertise of UK based
MRO engineers and companies secures valuable revenue for the UK
by performing vital maintenance work on foreign aircraft.
4.13 Though the Aerospace and Defence industry
works towards long term targets in technology and product development,
it should also be noted that it is prepared to respond to immediate
problems. This can be seen by the technology insertion recently
required for the Urgent Operational Requirements (UORs) in Afghanistan
and Iraq.
5. SUSTAINABLE
AVIATION AND
OPPORTUNITIES FOR
ENGINEERS
5.1 Sustainable Aviation is a comprehensive
strategy for the long term sustainability of the UK aviation industry.
This pioneering initiative brings together the UK's leading airlines,
airports, aerospace manufacturers and air navigation service providers.
Signatories to the strategy are committed to delivering by 2020
the recommendations of the Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research
in Europe (ACARE) in reducing:
- carbon dioxide emissions by 50%;
- aircraft noise by 50%; and
- oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions by 80%.
5.2 The strategy sets out the industry's
vision for a sustainable future, both environmentally and economically.
Innovation from the UK is incorporated on all new aircraft which
are sold throughout the world, meaning that any environmental
improvements developed in the UK will make a contribution to the
overall reduction in aviation emissions on a global scale.
5.3 The technologies being developed towards
attaining these goals puts the Aerospace industry right at the
cutting edge of innovative research. The self-imposed challenges
of the Sustainable Aviation Strategy are focusing the direction
of research into producing more efficient technologies to tackle
the challenges that climate change presents. In doing so, openings
for engineers in new emerging fields are constantly being created.
5.4 For example the Environmentally Friendly
Engine (EFE) programme, which is designed to deliver significant
reductions in CO2 and NOx relative to 2000, is providing a new
career avenue for Aerospace engineers. Many of the engineers who
are involved during the development of these environmental technologies,
will also be the same engineers who are later involved with the
product development programmes. Engineers working on the EFE programme
will be able to use the experience that they have gained for the
development of the next generation of engines. As well as working
on future systems, these engineers can also potentially integrate
the new technologies into existing systems and thereby further
improve current systems' environmental performance.
5.5 Much of the innovative technology and
process improvement is the product of a collaborative effort between
industry and academia. The Aerospace and Defence sector have numerous
examples of leading activity in this arena, for example BAe Systems
has strategic partnerships with four leading UK Universities in
Aeronautical Engineering (Cranfield), Support Engineering (Cambridge),
Systems Engineering (Loughborough) and Distributed Data and Information
Systems (Southampton) while continuing to work with dozens of
other UK academic institutions. Rolls-Royce has set up University
Technology Centres to this effect, where each centre is devoted
to a specific technical discipline. The Lambert Review of Business-University
Collaboration (2003) recognised the benefits such centres bring
to the industry as well as universities and the economy as these
technological improvements are introduced into the world.
6. CONCLUSION
- UK Aerospace and Defence companies directly
employ an engineering workforce of 80,000, which is one tenth
of the entire UK engineering community;
- the Gross Value Added per employee for
the Aerospace and Defence Industry is the highest of any engineering
sector at £74,000;
- 34% of the industry's employees hold a
university degree or equivalent, by 2010 this is forecast to rise
to 40%;
- average employee earnings in the sector
are 43% higher than the UK average;
- UK aerospace engineers play a key role
in developing the technologies which are combating Climate Change;
and
- the aerospace and defence industry are
actively involved in building the required skills base for a successful
and competitive global industry with its interaction throughout
the UK educational cycle.
The engineering workforce remains a crucial
part of the success of the UK Aerospace and Defence industry.
With many different technologies being developed and installed
into global markets, the UK Aerospace & Defence industry has
a proven itself successful on a world scale.
Aerospace and Defence is working to recruit
new employees by investing considerably in apprenticeship schemes,
and actively supporting graduates through university and beyond.
By supporting the next generation of engineers, Aerospace is preparing
for the future challenges ahead.
March 2008
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