If you are interested or require further information regarding the following, please direct your enquiries to Catherine Souch at the RGS, email below.
Apologies for the delay in posting, the website was offline for a considerable period of time and has recently come back online.
The Geospatial Commission
This was launched earlier this year to help ‘unlock value of the sector, valued up to £11 billion per year’. In August it announced a call for evidence (deadline later in October), focussing on innovation, enhancing geospatial assets and driving investment. There are an array of questions, on which you (colleagues) will have valuable insight. The Society will be responding to the consultation and will specifically be focusing on the questions around skills (Q2 and 3). (Q2: the areas of geospatial skills where the Commission could best focus to help ensure the necessary capability within the UK for the future? Q3: What are the geospatial skills needs and gaps in your organisations, how can these be most effectively addressed, and how can careers in the sector be best promoted?). There are later questions that are relevant too, specifically around EO and around challenges using public sector data) Full details at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-launch-call-for-evidence-to-be-geospatial-world-leader. Please send comments to inform our response/encourage colleagues to do so – send these to Catherine Souch at c.souch@rgs.org.
Skills gaps
Parallel to this Catherine Souch will be participating in an event with the Geospatial Commission on skills. If you have collected any information in your department (e.g. from working with employer advisory groups, alumni etc) on gaps in provision; skills specifically needed by employers, please let us know by emailing Catherine at c.souch@rgs.org. We’d be very grateful for anything you (colleagues) can share (ideally in the next week). All insights would be appreciated.
Apprenticeships
Related to this, the Society is being approached by employers about apprenticeships (levels 4 to 7). Many of these questions focus on GI/GIS specifically. Please let us know if your department/institutions has been discussing apprenticeships, particularly around GI/GIS, and if you have any potential interest in this. We’d be very interested in picking up the conversation and we may host a workshop in the next couple of months, with employers and the geospatial commission, to explore this further. Just as one example in this sphere: https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/apprenticeship-standards/geospatial-mapping-and-science-degree/ Any comments to Catherine Souch at c.souch@rgs.org.