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The government has announced a new education drive to ramp up defence training to a "wartime pace".
It is aiming to grow the UK’s skilled workforce through five new "technical excellence colleges" nationwide, along with targeted short courses and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) schemes for school students.
A ￡182 million funding package will underpin the initiative, forming a central part of a new defence industrial strategy due to be unveiled on Monday.
It will include:
Regional STEM initiatives for “thousands” of school-age students over the next four years to pursue careers in defence.Targeted short courses for people already working in specific defence industries.Higher education investment to increase places on defence-related courses.A new apprenticeship and graduate clearing system.Five new defence technical excellence colleges, with applications to go live by the end of this year and with successful colleges to be launched in 2026.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the strategy would offer opportunities for young people and help veterans into employment.
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Defence Secretary John Healey visits RAF Akrotiri during a visit to Cyprus in 2024(Getty Images)
It would also “equip the UK workforce with the expertise” needed for “the demands of a rapidly-evolving defence sector to innovate at a wartime pace”.
The strategy will frame defence as “the engine room for national renewal” and seek to equip workers with skills needed for the future, such as submarine engineers and cyber warfare specialists.
Defence Secretary John Healey said the drive was “the biggest defence skills plan in decades” and would help to boost both national security and jobs creation.
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Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said it would “break down barriers to opportunity for people in every corner of our country”.
The initiative comes just two months after a Nato general secretary warned that Britain and its people are not safe, and that the country is not prepared for war.
Lord Robertson of Port Ellen told Parliament that Britain is lacking in ammunition, training, people, logistics, and medical capacity, and that being underprepared for war is an “understatement”.
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Former Nato chief Lord Robertson of Port Ellen with Defence Secretary John Healey(PA Archive)
“The British people are faced with a world in turmoil, with great power competitions spilling over now into conflict, with constant grey zone attacks on our mainland, and with Russia – often with the co-operation of Iran, China and North Korea – challenging the existing world order,” he said.
“We simply in this country are not safe.”
Meanwhile, French hospitals have been told to prepare a potential armed conflict in Europe by next year.
In a letter sent to regional health agencies, revealed by Le Canard Encha？né , the Ministry of Health asked hospitals to prepare for a “major (military) engagement” by March 2026.
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“In the current international context, it is necessary to anticipate the modalities of health support in situations of high-intensity conflict,” the Ministry of Health reportedly wrote in the document.
The newspaper warned that between 10,000 and 50,000 men could be expected in hospitals over a period of 10 to 180 days.