About Innovation Talent & Skills
Our mission is to ensure innovative businesses have access to the people and skills needed in the UK to stay, grow and thrive. We want the UK’s world-leading innovation ecosystem to be celebrated and recognised for its people and skills, as being a critical and fundamental component of success.
During 2025/26 Innovate UK supported several organisations to take forward our strategic objectives on talent and skills:
- Ensuring UK innovative businesses have access to the people with the innovation skills required;
- Ensuring skills is a critical enabler of innovation and growth by unlocking the capabilities required to maximise frontier technologies in the UK.
Talent & Skills Project Showcase synopsis
Across two days, Innovate UK and partner organisations will learn from the successful outputs of projects delivered in 2025/26, with an objective of sharing practice for the benefit of dissemination and broader adoption.
The two days will be framed around the two objectives of innovation skills and capabilities to unlock frontier technologies.
The days will showcase:
- Innovate UK’s development of the Innovation Skills Framework
- The Innovation Literacy Programme led by Oldham College
- Glasgow City Region’s Pilot of the Innovation Skills Framework
- The Institute of Innovation Management
- Innovation UK’s development of a private sector roles framework for UK innovation
- The integration of technology roadmaps and people and capability by High Value Manufacturing Catapult
- The mobilisation of workforce foresighting data by Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult
Objectives
- To increase awareness of Innovate UK’s investment in talent, skills and leadership capability as an innovation fundamental
- To build awareness of the work of partners across innovation and frontier technologies and how understanding can guide timely workforce and skills interventions
- To demonstrate the benefit of aligning confidence in innovative technologies with skills programmes
- To explore how to maximise collaboration to gain greater support for innovative businesses
- To share the learning of Innovate UK’s investment and encourage broader adoption
Agenda
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10:00-16:00 | City of Glasgow College,City Campus, 190 Cathedral Street, G4 0RF
Kick off the Showcase with a deep dive into the skills that power innovation. Day One focuses on building capability- from understanding the core skills needed to innovate, through to embedding them at scale across regions, organisations and education providers.
Hear from leading practitioners as they explore the Innovation Skills Framework, share insights from the Greater Manchester Innovation Literacy Programme, and demonstrate how regions like Glasgow are integrating innovation skills across their ecosystems. The day also introduces work to professionalise innovation practice, helping to define the roles, standards and career pathways shaping the future workforce.
Expect practical insights, real-world examples and opportunities to connect with peers working across the talent and skills landscape.
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10:00-16:00 | Glasgow Kelvin College, Springburn Campus,123 Flemington Street, Glasgow, G21 4TD
Day Two shifts focus to the future – exploring how workforce insights, data and technology roadmaps shape the skills needed for emerging industries.
Sessions will uncover who is driving innovation in the private sector, highlight the importance of aligning technology strategies with workforce readiness, and showcase how organisations are turning foresight data into actionable skills planning.
From understanding innovation roles to preparing for future technologies, this day offers forward-looking perspectives and practical approaches to ensuring the UK workforce is ready to thrive.
Accessibility and Inclusion
We are committed to ensuring our events are accessible for all.
If you experience any barriers to registering, for any reason, please contact us by email: enquiries@iukbc.org.uk or phone: +44 03333 403250 and we will support your registration.