STEM Outreach and Volunteering in the UK

At Thales in the UK, our commitment to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education reflects our belief that these careers should be accessible to everyone. Through strategic partnerships, employee volunteering, and innovative initiatives, we're breaking down barriers of opportunity for young people, while building a strong skills pipeline to drive future innovation and growth.

Igniting young minds today to solve tomorrow's technological challenges

Our work in STEM education isn't just about recruiting tomorrow's workforce – it's about sparking curiosity, unlocking problem-solving skills, and nurturing creative thinking in young minds across the UK through outreach initiatives.

This commitment is powered by our employees' enthusiasm for what they do. In fact, many of our volunteers were inspired by engineers they met when they were students themselves, and are now excited to 'pay it forward' through our company-wide volunteering policy. Added up, this enables us to contribute 160,000 hours of employee-delivered volunteering each year.

We allocate Apprentices and Graduates 80 hours of volunteering time in their first two years with us. In 2024 alone, Thales in the UK employees contributed 32,159 hours of volunteering across our community initiatives. Here's a look at how we're making a difference.

Primary Engineer: bringing engineering to life in classrooms

Our flagship partnership with Primary Engineer (PE) connects real-world engineering expertise with primary education. Through this collaboration, Thales employees mentor students and help them develop practical solutions to everyday problems.

Here are some recent highlights:

The Primary Engineer MacRobert Medal Ceremony, where pupils and engineers from across the UK were honoured for their innovative designs.
The unveiling of prototypes inspired by primary student designs and developed by our Thales ProtoTeams, typically made up of Graduates and Apprentices, giving young people the opportunity to see their ideas brought to life.
Demonstration Day where students presented their work alongside Thales engineers.

Watch the Thales and Primary Engineer Demo Day video

Building specialist skills

We partner with specialist STEM education organisations, offering opportunities that help students develop technical knowledge alongside practical skills. This collaboration focuses on creating sustainable and impactful learning experiences that benefit both students and our employee volunteers. These include hands-on engineering challenges, residential courses, and STEM days where you can test your skills on real-world problems.

Bridging the skills gap

As part of our global 'Tech Vocation Maker' initiative, Thales aims to reach over a million students and individuals worldwide by 2030. This ambitious target reflects our understanding that a strong STEM foundation is essential to address future challenges.

What is the Tech Vocation Maker initiative?

The Tech Vocation Maker is a global Thales Solidarity programme designed to promote technological education and create pathways to technical careers for young people. Through partnerships with schools and organisations, the initiative aims to inspire the next generation of engineers and technologists.

Regional impact across the UK

Our STEM outreach initiatives span the whole of the UK with tailored programmes that address specific educational needs and industry opportunities in each region. As such, working with STEM and academia partners is an integral part of our strategy and the outreach work we do in the UK. This means we're making a meaningful difference in communities across all four Home Nations.

In Northern Ireland (NI), our commitment extends from university research to classroom engagement. We're supporting cutting-edge research at Queen's University Belfast in cyber security, aerodynamics, and advanced communications, among others. And in 2023, in partnership with Southern Eastern Regional College (SERC), we launched a Skills Academy to help recruit and retain NI apprentices, support the learning and development of all employees, and positively impact the local community.

We've established partnerships with four local schools to deliver targeted STEM programming and collaborate with the SistersIN Mentoring programme to encourage girls to pursue STEM careers. Our work with Primary Engineer and Secondary Engineer Leaders Award for Northern Ireland gives local school pupils the chance to meet and work directly with engineers from Thales in the UK, creating meaningful connections between education and industry.

Our Welsh initiatives focus on developing the next generation of cybersecurity talent through strategic partnerships. We work closely with Cyber College Cymru to build specialist skills and actively support the National Cyber Security Centre's CyberFirst Girls competition to promote gender diversity in the field.

To date, we’ve reached over 200 schools and more than 10,000 learners across South Wales. Students taking part in our cybersecurity programmes learn crucial skills that are increasingly important in our digital world, like protecting systems from hackers and developing secure software. We're also creating clear pathways to cybersecurity careers through apprenticeships and internships, helping to bridge the gap between education and employment.

In Glasgow and wider Scotland, we're piloting an novel approach to skills development that goes beyond traditional educational outreach. Our collaboration with Glasgow City Council and five partner schools focuses on developing both student skills and teacher understanding of industry connections.

In these Glasgow partnerships, students work on projects ranging from renewable energy solutions to automated systems, gaining skills that directly transfer to industry needs. This model not only prepares young people for the workforce, it also enhances education delivery, creating a sustainable pipeline of talent for Scotland's growing technology sector.

Around our key English sites, we're raising aspirations in partner schools through comprehensive engagement strategies. We've broadened the reach of our employee volunteers to develop community knowledge about STEM careers with Thales, offering young people enriching and developmental sessions run in-house or by external partners.

And through our mentoring relationships with Primary Engineer, our engineers have helped students turn their ideas into prototypes, including smart devices that cut energy use and new approaches to recycling. We've also placed staff at various school levels, serving as careers advisors and on governing boards to ensure our industry expertise helps informs educational direction.

Looking forward

As technology evolves, so does our approach to STEM education. By investing in future generations of engineers and technology specialists, we're building a strong skills pipeline to foster innovation and growth across the UK. In fact, we see our commitment to breaking down barriers of opportunity in STEM education as one of our most important contributions to the UK's future prosperity and technological leadership.

Careers at Thales

STEM Outreach and Volunteering in the UK

Igniting young minds today to solve tomorrow's technological challenges

Primary Engineer: bringing engineering to life in classrooms

Building specialist skills

Bridging the skills gap

What is the Tech Vocation Maker initiative?

Regional impact across the UK

Northern Ireland

Wales

Scotland

England

Looking forward