New degree at Herefordshire's NMITE university to address 'key' skills gap, says chief executive
The New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering (NMITE) has welcomed its first students onto its autonomous robotics course, which has been backed and developed in partnership with the UK Armed Forces
A newly launched British Army backed autonomous robotics degree at Herefordshire's university will help address a "critical shortage" of skills in those areas, the chief executive of the higher education provider has said.
The New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering (NMITE) has welcomed its first set of students this month to start the course, which was officially announced last December.
It's been created by NMITE and the UK Armed Forces, supported by a £240,000 investment from the British Army, to train 15 civilian students and up to five soldiers a year as drone technology specialists.
The previous Sir Keir Starmer-led Labour government said in a release back in January on the launch of the degree, that the conflict in Ukraine had "highlighted the growing threat posed by uncrewed devices", and it was "critical" that the UK has specialist capability to meet that demand but also the power to protect military sites from such threats.
NMITE chief executive and president James Newby said it is "hugely exciting" it is now officially underway, and getting people trained so they are experts in these areas is crucial.
"The skills are absolutely key, there's a critical shortage of engineers in the UK at the moment, but importantly, there's a critical shortage in these new areas of things like robotics and automation," he said.
"This course is designed to address that gap, in fact, all the courses we do at NMITE are aimed at critical national skills needs so that the graduates have really good opportunities for careers in areas where the country really needs it.
"In this case, there's an obvious defence and security need for people who can fly drones and build drones and defend against attacks from drones, but there's massive civilian application as well.
"The same skills, autonomous systems, systems thinking, mechatronics, robotics, all of those skills are hugely important to manufacturing, to agriculture, to humanitarian work, so these skills will have that application right across the economy."
Those who have enrolled on the masters course will see them gain a Masters in Engineering (MEng) in three years.