Jobs Within the UK Defense Industry

By Claire M Jefferies

In 2011 the British government pledged to work on increasing the amount of defense exports. In the current climate, it is hard for a high school graduate to know which industry is going to stand the test of time, and is worth spending three or four years on at university. This is particularly the case with the recent increase in costs of university fees.

The defense industry is one which goes up and down in the favor of politicians and people's thoughts. Around 10% of UK manufacturing is made up by the defense sector. The UK exports more arms than any other country in the world apart from the United States, a figure over 7 billion pounds. It is very important to our economy.

At the moment, there are around 300,000 people employed in the defense industry, of which just over 50,000 work within exports. Although we think of the government being the only source of defense jobs, because of the nature of the
country there are nearly 10,000 separate defense companies all working together. Suppliers like Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems, who obvious provide for the private sector, derive a huge amount of business from the defense sector.

With a 30 billion pound turnover, the UK defense industry is not only here to stay, but it is growing bigger and more important to our country. People with a fantastically wide-set of skills are employed within the defense sector. One can start with a company with relatively small amount of education, or alternatively one can initially go to college or university to learn the skills that in demand.

We begin by thinking of ship building and weapons manufacture, but of course the defense industry needs to be supported by other types of people just as much as any other business. It requires management, procurement, sales, diplomacy, advertising, workforce management, chemist, biologists, workmen and business leaders. It is a sector that, if one moves into, can offer positions that have a length of service rarely found in other sectors.

Choosing to move into defense is not automatically a meal ticket for life, but in the UK it is very solid option to choose when all other options seem to be rather shaky. With the recent government proposals to grow this sector as much as possible, it really appears to be an industry in which one can have a long and very profitable career.



Claire Jefferies is writing on behalf of Mane Contract Services Ltd, who can help applicants Rail Jobs and also Engineering jobs
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