UK to open cyber warfare and technical defence colleges under £182 million skills plan

The government will convert five existing further education colleges into technical excellence institutions focused on defence and cyber warfare as part of a £182 million package announced alongside a new Defence Industrial Strategy.

The Ministry of Defence said the funding will create specialist programmes for 16-year-olds and older post‑secondary learners in areas including cyber operations, submarine engineering and specialist welding, with the first pupils due to be enrolled next year. Applications for colleges and other post‑16 providers will open later this year, the MoD said.

The Defence Department described the initiative as the biggest skills plan for defence in decades. Defence Secretary John Healey wrote in a weekend newspaper column that the strategy will ‘‘create well‑paid, high‑skilled jobs for young people for generations to come’’ and place the UK at ‘‘the leading edge of innovation.’’ Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the new colleges would provide a ready, skilled workforce and ‘‘secure the UK’s place in the world.’’

Alongside the transformed further education institutions, the package includes an £80 million allocation for universities to expand places on defence‑related courses and upgrade facilities. The MoD also said the funding will support thousands of short courses for existing staff and new starters, and that the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service will add a new defence section to its website to guide prospective applicants.

The government said the specialist programmes will teach ‘‘emerging technologies’’ and aim to feed trained candidates directly into industry and defence roles. Details released so far indicate five currently designated FE colleges will be transformed into the technical excellence campuses; there are about 256 FE colleges, sixth‑form colleges and designated institutions across the UK.

The move comes amid persistent concerns about recruitment and technical skills shortages in the defence sector. An externally commissioned Strategic Defence Review published earlier this year warned that Britain’s armed forces were better suited to a peacetime era and not fully optimised for warfare against a ‘‘peer’’ military state, noting gaps in readiness, medical capacity and deployable personnel.

Labour, which is driving the initiative, has argued the centres will boost recruitment, create jobs and strengthen the defence industrial base across the UK. The party’s leadership has also proposed raising defence spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2027, with the prime minister setting a longer‑term ambition of three percent by the end of the parliamentary term.

The MoD faces criticism from some smaller British manufacturers, who have previously said the department’s procurement and spending practices favour larger firms. Department figures have shown that smaller manufacturers receive about a quarter of MoD procurement cash, a point critics say the new skills push will need to address if it is to broaden industrial participation.

Officials said the full Defence Industrial Strategy, to be published next week, will outline further initiatives aimed at improving industrial capacity and technological innovation. The immediate next steps include opening applications to FE providers later this year and finalising curricula and industry partnerships so that the new colleges can accept their first cohorts in the following academic year.

Ministry officials declined to disclose the names of the five colleges selected for transformation ahead of the strategy’s formal publication. The MoD said it will work with education bodies, industry partners and universities to align training with current and future defence requirements and to ensure pathways into both military and civilian defence roles.

Analysts and industry representatives said the success of the initiative will depend on details about curriculum content, accreditation, long‑term employer commitments and funding stability. The MoD said the new programmes would complement existing apprenticeship and university routes into defence employment and be part of a broader effort to modernise the skills pipeline in the face of rapid technological change.

The Defence Industrial Strategy will be published next week and is expected to set out additional measures intended to strengthen the UK’s defence workforce, research and industrial base in response to shifting global threats and advances in military technology.