Building the Future of Innovation: Skills Hubs in Action
The November Talent and Skills Connect webinar brought together experts leading the charge in developing the UK’s skills infrastructure through innovative Skills Hubs. From electrification and medicine manufacturing to AI and fusion energy, the session showcased how these hubs are connecting employers, educators and learners to power the industries of tomorrow.
Opening the session, Monaaz Dotivala, Innovation Manager for Workforce and Skills at Innovate UK, set the scene: “Today’s webinar is about showcasing the role of Skills Hubs in driving innovation, learning more about their offerings and understanding how each hub’s activities supports workforce readiness and sector-specific goals.”
Electric Revolution Skills Hub
Deepak Farmah, Director of Research and Innovation at Coventry University, spoke about the Electric Revolution Skills Hub, which launched in March 2023.
He explained that the Hub was developed to support the electrification and net zero workforce, bringing together employers, training providers, individuals and academia to build a shared understanding of skills needs.
“For me, a skills hub is an activation of a community, a network that allows us to all work together to support skilled on a much grander scale rather than through localised interventions.”
Deepak described how the Hub was built with a user-centric design and is now fully commercially sustainable, with over 100 000 visitors and around 9000 monthly users engaging with its tools and resources.
He emphasised the importance of community and inclusion: “It’s about how we continue to activate that community and energise it so that skills can become easily accessible, and people can understand the ecosystem better.”
Medicines Manufacturing Skills Centre of Excellence (Resilience)
Next, Ivan Wall, Co-Director of Resilience, shared how the UK Medicines Manufacturing Skills Centre of Excellence is addressing workforce challenges in life sciences.
He highlighted the need to train 145,000 new people over the next 10 years, using standardised, quality-assured training across a national network of partners including the University of Birmingham, UCL, Heriot-Watt University, Teesside University and Britest Limited.
“We have an acute skills shortage. We need to attract young people into STEM and mobilise people from diverse backgrounds so that we can increase the talent pool and provide the skills that are required.”
Ivan also spoke about using virtual reality to reduce training to reduce training costs and risks while building digital literacy, and about outreach activities across the UK to promote equality, diversity and inclusion.
“We’ve reached 15,000 people through engagement and outreach, trained over 1500, and have more than 200 organisations now using our materials. It’s about making careers in this sector accessible to as many people as possible.”
AI Skills Hub
Sean Hughes from PwC introduced the AI Skills Hub, created in partnership with Innovate UK to help organisations build confidence and capability in adopting artificial intelligence.
He explained the Hub’s purpose: “Research consistently show that a lack of skills is the top barrier when it comes to adopting emerging technologies, including AI. That’s the context that led to Innovate UK to say, let’s do something a little different.”
Launched in June 2024, the Hub offers over 600 courses covering beginner to advanced levels, along with a personal learning pathway tool and white papers on AI skills trends.
“The question we hear most often is ‘Where do I start with AI?’ The Hub is designed to help employers and learners answer that question and access trusted training resources.”
Fusion Skills Hub
Finally, Zara Santos from the UK Atomic Energy Authority discussed plans for the Fusion Skills Hub, a new platform that will link learning, jobs and training opportunities across the UK’s growing fusion energy sector.
“Fusion is the reaction happening in the sun and the stars. If we can recreate that on Earth, we can produce abundant, clean energy with no greenhouse gases.”
She explained that the hub will be co-created with the community and will capture data from learners and employers to inform future training and policy.
“We don’t want to build a hub for the fusion community; we want to build it with them.”
Over 100 organisations have already expressed interest in collaborating, reflecting strong support for a unified national platform.
The session closed with reflections on collaboration across the ecosystem. As Monaaz summarised, the goal is to ensure that Skills Hubs are not just digital platforms, but living, connected networks that empower innovation and sustainable growth across industries.