Defence giants BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce pledge 40,000 jobs a year for young Britons as industry faces 53,000-worker gap

From the Newshound archive · first published 24 September 2026.

Major defence contractors including BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Airbus and Babcock have signed a landmark pledge to offer 40,000 apprenticeships, work placements and permanent roles to 18-to-24-year-olds every year by 2030, rising to 50,000 by 2035. Defence Secretary Wes Streeting signed the deal at a London roundtable on Wednesday, calling youth unemployment a "moral emergency" with nearly one million young people currently not in education, employment or training. The scheme builds on last year's £182 million defence skills package and forms part of Labour's wider push to link surging defence spending to domestic job creation.

Firms have agreed to a 'no wrong door' policy, pointing unsuccessful applicants to other roles across the defence supply chain.

The £298 billion Defence Investment Plan is expected to create more than 60,000 new UK roles in total, with the majority of spending outside London and the south-east.

The industry faces a 53,000-worker shortfall, giving the pledge an urgency well beyond political optics.