What skills will be required for safely adopting emerging technologies in engineering? How are we going to ensure that these skills are provided to those who need them?

Join us for an interactive workshop which will explore key future trends, co-designing job roles and skills that the engineering sector will need in 2040, 2060 and beyond.

Emerging technologies such as Internet of Things, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, and new energy sources such as hydrogen, are increasingly impacting the engineering sector, and the skills that businesses and other employers are looking for. They also pose specific safety challenges and opportunities, impacting the safety of workers, the environment and cyber security.

Are you looking to safely introduce, develop or scale emerging technologies in your business, or are you seeing these technologies impact the skills that you are providing?
Are you spotting skills gaps in the talent pool that pose a challenge to employing such technologies safely?
Are you interested in learning about, and proactively shaping the provision of, these skills by different stakeholders in the system?

This 2-hour workshop will explore key future trends, and enable you to take part in co-designing job roles and skills that your organisation might need in the next 20-30 years. We will also be exploring innovative solutions to current skills challenges.

We welcome creative, future-oriented, and innovative thinking – emerging technologies are likely to change many job roles, the demand for skills, and wider organisational and sectoral priorities!

What is foresight and why should you engage with it?

Foresight is an important component of making effective business decisions, particularly in recruitment where training and progression pathways may not respond quickly enough to trends that are already well in motion. Yet much of the data that businesses access is rooted in the business requirements of today, rather than the possibilities of the future.

Why attend?

Think about key roles and skills strategically through a futures-lens
Inform your organisation’s, and the wider engineering sector’s, recruitment practices and skills provision activity
Influence future policy and strategic planning in this field
Learn from your peers, employers, learning providers, and engineering bodies and stay on top of key trends

About the RSA and our work

The RSA – The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce – is a global network of more than 30,000 entrepreneurs, educators and innovators working together for the advancement of society, the economy and the environment. Please find out more about our Design for Life mission here.

This event is part of a research initiative that we are delivering with Lloyds Register Foundation and University of York, with the aim of understanding how emerging technologies such as IoT, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, and new energy sources such as hydrogen are impacting engineering. We are looking at the skills that will be needed to safely adopt these technologies, and how best to provide these.

Future Engineering Skills Lab