04.12.2025
AI, automation, and quantum technologies are already reshaping defence operations and, crucially, workforce demands. The Strategic Defence Review 2025 (SDR) mandates the rapid adoption of these technologies, calling for:
- “Digital warfighter” and AI operation skills, to leverage autonomous systems, predictive analytics, and digital targeting webs.
- Training in quantum-enabled capabilities, such as ultra-secure communications, quantum navigation, and advanced cryptography, areas where global defence investment will exceed $25 billion by 2030.
- Upskilling at scale: traditional classroom approaches are giving way to modular, simulation-based, and just-in-time digital learning solutions that can be deployed across regular, reserve, and industrial workforces.
This upskilling imperative is compounded by the “whole force” approach outlined in the SDR: reservists are to grow by 20%, career and education pathways are being reformed for military, civil service, and industry staff alike, and Defence Skills Passports will facilitate skilled mobility as roles evolve rapidly.
Resourcing a new generation
Solving the aerospace and defence talent crunch requires more than incremental recruitment. It calls for radical resourcing strategies that diversify and expand the talent pool. The UK’s aerospace and defence and defence workforce is ageing fast. Nearly 30% of the sector’s engineers are over 55, according to the Royal Aeronautical Society. At the same time, we’re seeing competition from automotive, renewables, and tech is pulling digital specialists away from defence programmes.
The challenge now isn’t just hiring, it’s reimagining where talent comes from. The next generation of skilled workers and leaders may come from non-traditional backgrounds, new geographies, or mid-career switchers.
Morson Edge’s own experience supports this trend, helping clients reframe their hiring models combining adjacent-skill analysis, inclusive recruitment practices, and local partnerships to connect untapped talent to mission-critical roles. We’re supporting progressive employers to cast the net wider: tapping career changers, veterans, STEM returners and cross-sector specialists with transferable skills. The Civil Aviation Authority recently reported that 35% of early-career hires in aerospace and defence now come from outside traditional engineering disciplines, a shift fuelled by automation, sustainability, and data-led design.
Diversity and inclusion aren’t just ethical imperatives; they are performance multipliers.
ADS Group data shows organisations with gender-diverse leadership in aerospace and defence experience 15% higher innovation output and stronger retention rates. By connecting aerospace primes, defence OEMs and Tier 2 suppliers with diverse and adjacent talent pools, we’ve seen inclusion and innovation rise together. Because diversity isn’t a tick box it’s an engine of resilience.
Democratising engineering recruitment: Unlocking hidden potential
For too long, engineering recruitment has been constrained by convention. Aerospace and defence industries have historically prized red-brick degrees, linear career paths, and legacy qualification frameworks unintentionally filtering out capable, creative people whose potential didn’t fit the mould.
That model no longer fits the mission.
The technologies now defining aerospace and defence from AI-driven propulsion to quantum-secure systems demand adaptability, curiosity, and continuous learning more than conventional credentials. In this new era, aptitude is the advantage.
Democratising engineering recruitment means redefining what “qualified” really means. It’s about valuing capability, potential, and purpose alongside education. It’s about creating entry pathways for self-taught coders, career changers, veterans, STEM returners, and technicians who’ve developed expertise outside traditional academia.
At Morson Edge, we see this shift happening first-hand. We’re working with aerospace and defence organisations to replace rigid CV filters with skills-based assessment frameworks, map adjacent-skill pipelines, and use data-led profiling to identify talent that might otherwise be overlooked.
The results speak for themselves. Expanding hiring criteria to include aptitude and skills adjacency can increase candidate diversity by up to 30%, while reducing time-to-hire by 25%. That’s not social engineering, that’s smart engineering.
As the sector faces a generation-defining skills shortfall, democratising recruitment isn’t just fairer it’s a competitive imperative. The future of aerospace and defence won’t be built solely by those who followed the traditional path. It will be built by those who had the drive, ingenuity, and mindset to take flight another way.
Passing the baton: Knowledge transfer and continuous learning
The sector’s skills base isn’t just thinning; it’s at risk of eroding. With almost a third of experienced engineers nearing retirement, the loss of institutional knowledge is real and immediate. As experienced engineers retire, critical expertise in safety, systems, and complex programme management risks evaporating unless captured and shared effectively.
The answer isn’t just succession planning, it’s knowledge acceleration. Digital tools, immersive learning, and AI-driven mentorship platforms are enabling aerospace and defence businesses to compress decades of expertise into accessible, on-demand learning.
Morson Edge’s training delivery partner Morson Nexus is seeing increased demand for a new generation of digital learning, powered by AI, simulation, and micro-credential platforms to enable organisations to compress decades of know-how into immersive, scalable training.
Morson Edge supports this evolution through partnerships that blend human mentoring with tech-enabled learning to accelerate knowledge transfer and readiness.
The UK Aerospace Growth Partnership estimates that adopting such digital learning strategies could reduce training time for new technical hires by up to 40%, while improving retention by aligning skills development with clear career pathways.
Purpose as a magnet: Redefining the aerospace and defence EVP
For a generation raised on purpose, flexibility and innovation, salary isn’t the dealmaker it used to be. Millennials and Gen Z engineers want to know why their work matters and how it contributes to sustainability, safety and progress.
The Employee Value Proposition (EVP) for aerospace and defence must evolve accordingly from “secure and stable” to “meaningful and transformative.” Linking daily work to global missions from decarbonising flight, safeguarding national security to enabling space exploration is key to retaining and inspiring talent.
Those that succeed will become talent magnets. Those that don’t risk losing the race before the runway.
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