As the UK continues its austerity drive and investment falls in the UK defence sector, demand continues for specialist engineering skills, according to David Leyshon, managing director at technical staffing specialist CBSbutler.

Leyshon’s comments follow a response from aerospace, defence & security sector industry body A|D|S the government’s consultation paper on Equipment, Support and Technology for UK Defence and Security, which says without sufficient investment, the UK defence sector will be unable to develop new battle-winning products onshore-specific to the UK’s Armed Forces, as well as products for export. 

A|D|S says it sees great potential for development of the fragmented UK security market, and supports proposals for government and industry to work together more effectively to support national security and promote economic growth.

Leyshon told Recruiter: “While we’ve seen major budget cutbacks in the MoD recently, the reality is that for some years there has been a steady decline in MoD funding and hence most of the larger engineering contractors have diversified into foreign markets — indeed the current weak sterling is to our advantage for export.

“Admittedly we are seeing large fall-out in MoD staff, but there remains substantial demand for engineering skills within the private UK defence sector working on international defence, anti-terrorism and homeland security.

“Moreover, there are a number of high investment UK military projects with committed government funding — for example, FRES (the Future Rapid Effect System), which provides for substantial employment demand.”

FRES is the MoD programme that aims to deliver a fleet of more than 3,000 armoured fighting vehicles for the British Army.