Workforce Mobility and Skills in UK Shipbuilding: Evidence from Industry Voices
Join us for a webinar exploring the findings from Workforce Mobility and Skills in UK Shipbuilding: Evidence from Industry Voices, a new report developed with the National Shipbuilding Office through Project Keel.
This session will unpack what we heard directly from people working across the UK shipbuilding sector about skills, retention, progression and workforce movement. Drawing on 12 senior stakeholder interviews and 509 anonymous workforce contributions collected across the UK, the report offers a grounded, qualitative picture of how workforce challenges are being experienced in practice.
Rather than relying on assumption or anecdote, the research captures lived experience from across regions, roles and career stages. The findings highlight that workforce pressures are often localised rather than uniform, with skills shortages concentrated in core technical trades and specialist engineering roles. They also point to the importance of programme stability, clear progression pathways, transferable skills, and long-term visibility of demand in shaping retention and mobility across the sector.
In this webinar, we will share the key themes from the report, reflect on what the evidence means for workforce planning and policy discussion, and open up the conversation on how the sector can better understand and respond to the realities facing its workforce today.
Whether you work in shipbuilding, maritime, policy, skills, training or industrial strategy, this session will provide a valuable opportunity to engage with evidence rooted in real industry voices.
You’ll hear about:
What the research revealed about workforce mobility across UK shipbuilding
Where skills shortages are being felt most acutely
How regional labour markets and programme timing shape workforce pressures
Why retention is closely linked to stability, progression and ecosystem strength
What this evidence means for future workforce planning conversations