Innovate UK Talent & Skills Connect Focus Event – Technical Skills Shortages

What is Talent & Skills Connect?

Talent & Skills Connect aims to:

• create collaboration within the innovation and skills ecosystem
• create a greater level of awareness of the organisations which exist in this space
• enable organisations to gain a respect across the space for the aims and ambitions which exist
• facilitate collective effort

Innovate UK has designed a programme of events in response to the needs of the community, set out in September 2024.

About the event

This Technical Skills Shortage focus event aims to explore the how the UK can respond to the challenges faced by innovative business and beyond, in terms of the attraction, recruitment and retention of Technical Professionals. The event will explore the underpinning challenges and the opportunity to engage with the work the Talent & Skills Connect Community is currently undertaking to address these challenges.

The event will explore the work which has taken place to date by the Science Council, in better understanding the needs of business, and the work being undertaken by partners including Gatsby, the Institutes of Technology and the Catapult Network.

The focus event will explore examples where the Talent & Skills Connect community can come together to promote practice which can improve the experiences of innovative businesses and explore how the skills system can respond to support this shortage area.

This event will explore how the system can collaborate and cooperate to ensure we can realise economic growth and opportunity for all and allow participants to reflect on the role they can play in the endeavour.

Why attend?

• To utilise an online community event to create change and improvement.
• Focus on the theme of technical skills to:
  • utilise the expertise of The Science Council to share the underpinning challenge facing innovative businesses and the value of collective working to support businesses in the attraction, recruitment and retention of technical professionals.
  • offer an example of how partners are supporting the attraction of technicians through Technicians: We Make a Difference
  • demonstrate how the community is supporting the training and development of technical professionals through the National Institutes of Technology Network.
  • explore the work of the Catapult Network and the support in place for new skills, reskilling, and upskilling
• To maintain ongoing support for Talent & Skills Connect and demonstrate value add.
• To maintain the commitment of partners attending the event.