BAE Systems – WRITTEN EVIDENCE (YUN0042)

Youth Unemployment Committee inquiry

About BAE Systems

BAE Systems is the UK’s principal defence, aerospace and security company. Our advanced capabilities and technologies protect people and national security and keep critical information and infrastructure secure. We continually search for new ways to provide our customers with a competitive edge across the air, maritime, land, space and cyber domains.

Out of a total global skilled workforce of 85,800, BAE Systems employs over 34,000 people in the UK across 62 sites, and are currently training over 2,000 apprentices.  We spend approaching £4bn each year with over 6,000 suppliers across the UK. We take seriously our responsibilities as a partner in defence and custodian of key sovereign skills. We deliver operational advantage and freedom of action to the UK Government and its armed forces, our key customer in the UK.

BAE Systems maintains a key position in designing, developing, building and supporting equipment for the UK’s armed forces across all domains, and delivering cyber security solutions to protect UK critical national infrastructure and leading commercial companies.

Questions positioned by the Committee Secretariat:

1. Has your organisation engaged with the Kickstart Scheme? How beneficial has the scheme been, and how could it be improved? Does your organisation offer any other work experience opportunities to young people?  

• Yes, BAE Systems bid for the Kickstart Scheme and is delivering 31 Kickstart placements now in our UK business. These are for up to 6 months during 2021
• Early feedback from within our business has been extremely positive from line managers and the functions
• The benefit to us as an employer is that it helps us to create a more diverse pipeline into our organisation as well as importantly benefiting the young person with valuable work experience. We expect to see a high percentage (90%+) of Kickstart trainees securing apprenticeships and some graduate programmes in September 2022
• In terms of improvements, we did find the bidding process very efficient together with excellent employer relationship support from DWP. One area to develop perhaps could be the promotion of Kickstart as a credible pipeline into apprenticeships particularly in STEM. We believe we at BAE Systems can help DWP and JCP with this promotion providing real case studies of successful Kickstart trainees moving onto apprenticeships. We would also support a six-month extension to Kickstart Scheme from January 2022, which we understand has been recommended by the CBI.
• With respect to work experience, BAE Systems was a founder member of Movement to Work (MtW) in 2014 and we have provided typically 100 placements for the young unemployed each year with the support of the Prince’s Trust. Typically c30 get an apprenticeship with us and in 2019 there were 78% positive outcomes overall (a job with us, a job with someone else or going into education). Before Covid, we would typically deliver 4-500 work experience placements each year and we are this planning to support c600 places virtually.

2. How do you practically use apprenticeships within your organisation? Do you consider traineeships and/or apprenticeships a valuable tool for the recruitment of young people? How has COVID-19 impacted your apprenticeship offering? How could apprenticeship policy be improved?  How has the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy changed your apprenticeship offer? Is it an appropriate mechanism for funding earn and learn study and how could it be improved?

• Apprenticeships are an integral component built into our internal business planning process to meet specific business skills requirements
• We see apprenticeships as a real practical way of developing and maintaining the scarce skills required for our industry (e.g. software, systems, nuclear, project management) and at the same time helping to enable greater diversity too within our organisation
• At BAE Systems we have an ageing workforce demographic and therefore we recognise that utilising apprenticeships is indeed an excellent tool to bring new young people into the organisation. 75% of our apprentices recruited in 2020 were aged between 16-25
• Despite the challenges of the pandemic we have continued to recruit record numbers of apprentices (746 2020) and plan this year to recruit c850 apprentices and 400 graduates too.
• With regards to Apprenticeship policy improvements, further consideration and support could be made to help SMEs both with setting up and delivering apprenticeships.
• The introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy has enabled our business to have one singular digital account in England from which to utilise and support funding for apprenticeships. Given the nature of our record numbers in training over these past years and long duration programmes we are fully utilising the Apprentice Levy c£8m pa. Separate to the Levy we have through our workforce requirements and our trailblazer leadership increased the number of relevant apprenticeship programmes for us to use from 25 to 50 different standards.
• Apprenticeships in our view are an excellent way to combine earning while you learn which is a powerful inducement to young people.
• Their value to us is also illustrated by our 95% UK Apprentice Completion Rate. Which is higher than the 65% national average

3. How does your business work with local education providers (schools, colleges, HE, FE, universities) to develop training schemes that meet the needs of your organisations and others in the local area?  Do you work with SMEs in your areas or more broadly and how does this relationship work if so? 

• We work with schools, colleges, HE, FE and universities in many ways. With schools we deliver a Schools Roadshow typically to 100k young people each year to over 420 schools. This year we will deliver a virtual Coding Success programme to 600 schools in partnership with the RAF and RN.
• We also have our apprentice role models visiting schools too to inspire young people into STEM – with over 300 active STEM Ambassadors
• In order to meet our training needs BAE Systems has chaired two Apprenticeship Trailblazer groups (Aerospace/Airworthiness and Maritime Defence since 2014) and has designed the occupational apprenticeship standards for both large and small employers. To achieve this we work closely on our trailblazer groups with colleges, universities and organisations such as GTA England representing 20,000 SMEs
• We visit over 30 universities as part of our graduate recruitment (although we are open to applications from all) and have five strategic technology partnerships with Birmingham, Cranfield, Strathclyde, Manchester and Southampton Universities.

4. What is your view of the current state of general skills gaps among young people seeking work or training, and how might this be addressed? How could STEM education be improved at both primary and secondary level and what role should businesses play in this? 

• It is our experience that we are able to recruit the young people we need for both our apprenticeship and graduate programmes
• It is our responsibility as businesses to provide the occupational skills needed to succeed in apprenticeship and graduate roles
• As mentioned we have strong apprenticeship and graduate programmes to create full occupational competence
• We do consider work experience opportunities to be really important for young people so that they can fully understand the opportunity presented by STEM careers
• It is our responsibility as we do to provide work experience, but there is more that Government could do to assist secondary schools with the capacity to support work experience, especially to assist the liaison with SMEs
• STEM Learning does a great role in supporting the Continuing Professional Development of science teachers and it would be helpful to build upon this

5. The Skills White Paper set out a greater vision for the role of employers in the design of technical courses such as T Levels. How will your organisation seek to work with the Government to achieve the development of practical courses that meet your needs and the needs of your sectors more widely?  How particular are your skills needs in comparison with those of the wider sectors and how can this be factored into the design of courses?

• BAE Systems is supportive of the Engineering T Level, which we see as a pipeline into our apprenticeships
• We are piloting design activity with Blackpool and the Fylde College and Furness College, developing a template model for the 45 day employer industry placement  
• We plan to run a pilot with a small cohort in 2022 to test this Industry Placement model
• We do see the Industry Placement as a great way of providing that specific insight into the skills needs of us as a business

6. What skills gaps do you see emerging in the next 5 to 10 years and how can the education and training system keep up with these rapidly changing needs? What role can organisations like yours play in this?  

• Current STEM skills gaps – the wider sector does currently have issues with a range of engineering skills including: software, systems, combat systems, nuclear engineering, naval architecture and aircraft maintenance, although we have mitigations in place to meet our needs
• Future STEM skills gaps – our analysis and that of our peers identifies specific digital skills (including cyber, autonomy, electrification, artificial intelligence and data analysis) and green/net zero skills
• Mitigations - this includes using role models in schools, our education outreach activities including our Schools Roadshow and involvement at Big Bang and WorldSkills UK LIVE to signpost and attract young people. To meet the future skills we are already working with peer employers and education partners through apprenticeship trailblazer groups to update standards to reflect digital and green requirements

7. How do your organisations engage with young people, particularly those from disadvantaged or hard to reach backgrounds, to encourage those with relevant skills to come forward and apply? How do you support them through the process, and what more could you do to reach those who might not have the confidence or face barriers to apply? 

• BAE Systems engages directly with those young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. We were a founder member of Movement to Work (MtW) in 2014 and working with the Prince’s Trust provide c100 placements pa for young unemployed people
• We run this as a pipeline into our apprenticeships programmes. The programme provides very practical employability skills and experience of work, our apprenticeship programme and our apprentices themselves. We see young people really gaining in confidence over the programme
• Typically 30 get apprenticeship roles with us each year and indeed in 2019 there were 78% positive outcomes (job with us, job with someone else or going into education)
• As mentioned before we are also supporting Kickstart as well
• Finally it is worth noting that in 2020 26% of our apprentices came from the most disadvantaged communities in England (Linked to the Government’s top three Indices of Multiple Deprivation)

Further Questions

9. [For BAE Systems] How is your business supporting the growth of green jobs; what are these jobs, and how might these be made available to young people?

• BAE Systems and its fellow employers in the sector recognises that green and net zero technologies will transform engineering and our approach to developing young people across all our programmes. We are working now with other employers, education providers and IfATE to update our Standards to reflect this
• Specifically our internal colleagues and peers have cited: green and sustainable technologies, green aviation/safer cleaner flying for passengers and innovations in technologies products and services as well as sustainable aviation fuels (hydrogen and biofuels) and electrification
• We will in our STEM outreach activity be increasingly referencing these as themes which will be of real interest and excitement to young people

12. [For BAE Systems] How are you supporting your employees, and particularly young employees, to upskill and reskill within your industry during the Fourth Industrial Revolution given the impact that it might have on the roles available to them?

• The Company did in 2019 produce a Future Skills White Paper specifically on digital skills which focussed both on the existing workforce and early careers
• We have supported the Made Smarter activity and have a substantial programme of training in place to upskill the workforce as part of our ongoing commitment to lifelong learning
• With regards to apprentices and graduates, the Company has spent c£50m on over the last 5 years on new digital academies for skills and knowledge. Furthermore, at the same time that we are refreshing with IfATE our engineering apprenticeship standards on green technologies we are doing this too for digital technologies

13. How many applications you receive per apprenticeship post?

• We had 10,500 applications for the c750 roles we recruited last cycle, so 14 per role on average.

14. How much your apprentices are paid?

• We do have as I mentioned in the Committee hearing a number of different starting salaries depending upon the location and level, but typically c£12k start for the Level 3 advanced apprenticeships and starting at c£17k for the Level 6 degree apprenticeships. There is fast pay progression for both. With the degree apprentices their end point at completion is dovetailed with where our graduates are at the end of their development so c£32k.

23rd April 2021