Southampton to address UK Skills Shortage in Photonics

The Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at Southampton University has been awarded £200,000 by the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s (HEFCE) Catalyst Fund to develop skills for the photonics industry.

To deliver its Catalyst Fund activities, Southampton will work closely with the universities of Surrey, Cardiff, Manchester and University College London and alongside key partners and investors including Rockley Photonics, Oclaro Technology, Huawei UK, Optocap and the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), whilst continuing to seek further industrial partners to work on bespoke curricula going forward.

It will build on its capacity for offering bespoke courses for workforce training and upskilling, focused on the individual companies’ requirements, by also integrating fabrication-related skills into existing accredited undergraduate and Masters-level courses at each of the partner universities, centred on Southampton’s world-class cleanroom facilities.

“The University of Southampton has a unique fabrication capability that is already available and open for collaborative projects, which can be effectively utilised by universities and industry alike, to train and retrain their students and staff,” said Professor Graham Reed, ORC Deputy Director and Director of Cleanroom Operations. “A key component of our activities will be curriculum development to close skills gaps in the important area of manufacturing and future materials, to help stimulate support for, and sustain economic growth locally, regionally, and nationally, in line the government’s Industrial Strategy.”

Prospective collaborators from industry who would like to join the ORC in its Catalyst Fund activities, or are interested in using the Centre’s cleanrooms and other fabrication facilities for more commercially-focused projects should contact Professor Graham Reed via email: G.Reed@soton.ac.uk