FOSTER: Fusion Opportunities in Skills, Training, Education and Research

Building a fusion skills ecosystem that can train, develop, and grow the fusion generation.

Programme overview

We estimate that between 2000 and 3000 new individuals will need to enter the workforce by 2030 to meet the demands of growth in the UK fusion sector. This spans a broad set of entry pathways, from apprenticeships through to post-doctorates, alongside the transfer of experienced professionals from adjacent industries.

At the core of this challenge is the need for skills development, outreach and awareness, and strategic coherence. Current training programmes within the UK do not have the capacity to develop the skills that this increase in workforce demands. Barriers to access and limited public awareness lead to a traditionally narrow demographic of those entering or within the fusion workforce which limits opportunities. These challenges have been recognised as a priority for the fusion sector by the UK Fusion Skills Council.

Delivered across three workstreams, the FOSTER (Fusion Opportunities in Skills, Training, Education, and Research) programme is a collection of 32 projects with a vision “To build a fusion skills ecosystem – with international reach – that can train, develop, and grow the fusion generation who will deliver fusion energy to the grid.”

Programme objectives

  1. Deepen the talent pool – Through partnership between the public sector, private sector, academia, and other training providers, increase the quality and quantity of talent available to the UK fusion sector, with the aim of bringing 2,200 newly trained individuals into the sector within 5 years.
  2. Widen the talent pool – Diversify and broaden access to the fusion sector by breaking down barriers to entry, aiming to increase the proportion of entrants into the fusion sector from under-represented groups, by 2030.
  3. Increase awareness of fusion careers – Increase awareness of the opportunities in the fusion sector within the educational system and amongst the future fusion generation, by increasing fusion modules in Undergraduate courses and promoting fusion career awareness and enquiries.
  4. Create a community – Develop an ecosystem of learners, training providers, fusion developers, and the wider fusion industry, that leverages connections across its breadth to deliver efficiencies and new opportunities to learners and workers and sets the culture of the sector for the future, guided by a new umbrella organisation providing coherence and strategic leadership in fusion skills.

Programme deliverables

FOSTER will deliver:

  • up to 300 additional PhD students trained across the spectrum of disciplines needed for fusion
  • more than 400 students trained in fusion-relevant skills across expanded or newly developed graduate courses in UK universities
  • a new National Fusion Skills Hub to provide materials, media, and leadership on fusion skills in the UK
  • wide-reaching outreach in schools and universities
  • a cross-industry collaborative approach to early careers in the fusion sector.

Benefits of the programme

The benefits of FOSTER are:

  • higher level training in the UK is better aligned to the future demands of the fusion sector
  • stronger talent pipelines from academia and adjacent industries into fusion training and careers
  • greater diversity within the fusion sector and in applicants to fusion careers
  • greater awareness of fusion careers in school children, university students, and those that influence them
  • increased efficiency of skills generation and retention within the fusion sector
  • national platform for fusion skills, capable of scaling with the future demands of the fusion sector

Get involved

FOSTER work in progress

Take a look at the work we are doing in the FOSTER programme.