Skills gap analysis in the space sector: Bridging the gap between curricula and job requirements for the future space workforce.

Abstract

Within the project STARS*EU (Studies, methodologies and support services for the programming cycle of EU-funded research to foster the competitiveness of the EU-space industry), we assessed the skills gap between European curricula related to space and the employers needs in the space sector. Nowadays, the space sector is an important and strategic segment of the European Union, which currently undergoes transformation and industrialization. The space sector provides technological support, data and services to analyse, mitigate and adapted to challenges such as climate change, fulfilling the SDGs, supporting humanitarian help etc. Many start-ups have been founded in this sector in the recent years and European wide universities offer space curricula. However, there is still a growing need for skilled employees to support a competitive EU space sector.  Therefore, it is important to understand the sectors needs for  graduates to be successfully employed as well as the workforce shortage in the space sector. The Stars*EU project partners conducted two skill analysis, one for the curricula landscape and one for the demands regarding jobs in the Research& Innovation sector, the space industry and universities. Therefore, we defined a schema describing the different hard skills gained in the curricula including STEAM&T categories (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics & Transversal), knowledge domains (space science, space technology, aerospace engineering, computer science, management etc.) and knowledge areas (planetology, aerospace structures, artificial intelligence, project management etc.). This made it possible to compare different curricula as well as job requirements. To provide a better description (and comparison) of the taught and required skills, we applied an adapted Blooms Taxonomy. Soft skills were analysed based on interviews with employers and universities as well as workshops conducted within the project. A skill matrix was created to analyse the skill gap between offered (taught) skills and demanded skills from the space sector. We found that soft skills like teamwork and project management were only taught as a by-product in most curricula and are strongly required on the job market. Further, specific hard skills regarding new space technologies or software were often not include in the curricula. In general, more professional experience was requested, as well as programs to train employees from other sectors to switch to the space sector. On the other side, young graduates often choose not to go into the space sector due to the job insecurity and low wages compared to other sectors. Moreover, there are only a few examples for programs, which provide already working insight and experience during the studies to offer the students already working experience and additional skills during the studies.