Join the SME Forum “The Future of Work”

Standard / by / May 11, 2021 / No Comments

ESA and SME4SPACE are co-organising a SME Forum “The Future of Work” on 17th June 2021 from 14:00 to 16:00 CEST.

The Covid-19 crisis has accelerated the evolution of the way of working in the space sector, especially towards a more digital and  green industry. The skills and competences required in the sector are quickly changing. This development needs to be anticipated to support the evolution and the competitiveness of Europe’s space industry and to attract the best professionals whose talents will be sought after by all industrial sectors. 

ESA intends to foster exchanges among Member States and industry to reflect on the evolution of the space sector and, on that basis, to define the main skills and competences that will be required to ensure that European industry maintains and strengthens its competitiveness.

In this context, the Agency is organising a consultation process with industry to gather inputs from Large System Integrators, Midcaps and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in three dedicated preparatory workshops. These workshops will provide inputs for and feed into a plenary event on 2 September 2021 entitled “The future of work in a more digital and green space sector”. This event will be attended by ESA, the OECD, delegations as well as industry representatives and will culminate in a report to the ESA Council.

To gather SME contributions, the Agency now invites Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) active in the space sector to participate to the discussion by attending the online preparatory event, the SME Forum on “The Future of Work” on 17 June 2021. In addition to sharing opinions and feedback during the event, registered participants are also invited to support the preparation of this Forum by providing their inputs through an online questionnaire which will be attached to the event’s registration confirmation.

The event is free of charge and it will be on line, however the registration is needed.

Please see below the full programme and to read more details and to register for this event please use the following link.

Programme

SME Forum “The Future of Work”

14h00 – 14h05: Welcome and introduction (ESA) 

14h05 – 14h20: ESA overview presentation on events since last SME Forum and outlook Agenda 2025 (ESA) 

14h20 – 14h30: SME4SPACE Covid-19 Surveys (SME4SPACE) 

14h30 – 15h45: The Future of Work interactive discussion

Topic 1: Tomorrow’s space activities and the evolution of the way of working (Moderated by ESA) 

  • New opportunities: space solutions in the post-covid world
  • Integration of new technologies (AI, big data, etc.)
  • Opportunities for greener activities 
  • Digitalisation
  • Remote working
  • Investing in R&D

Topic 2: Evolution of skills and competences – what will be needed to address these changes? (Moderated by ESA)

  • New skills
  • Hard vs. soft skills
  • Challenges and Opportunities of the demographics of the sector (hiring new generation and life-long learning)

15h45 – 16h00: Wrap-up and conclusions

Speakers:
Jens Kauffmann, Head of the SME and Industry Analytics Section, ESA 
Hans Bracquené, Chairman of SME4SPACE 

Participants: Registered SME representatives