Nearly 1,000 Jobs Are Planned From Plymouth's Defence Deal, and a Scheme Aims to Help 500 People Into Work

Plymouth has a green light for a defence investment package that is set to create nearly 1,000 jobs, with £50 million of government funding now released and a potential further £34 million from industry and local partners. Read the headline carefully, though. That jobs figure is a target for the whole programme, and the government release lists no vacancies or hiring dates. What is concrete today is the skills side, including a scheme to help 500 people into work and a set of apprenticeship and college routes that already exist in the city. For Metaintro readers, the useful pages are the employer pages and course listings behind the funding total, because that is where a welder, an engineering student or a veteran finds the actual door. Here is what was approved, who the jobs and training are for, and what you can do now.

What Did the Government Actually Approve for Plymouth?

The decision came on 23 September 2026, when Defence Minister Lord Vernon Coaker approved the strategic business case of the Team Plymouth partnership at Market Hall in Plymouth. That approval releases £50 million through the government's Defence Growth Deal and could unlock a further £34 million from industry and local partners, for an £84 million package aimed at making the city a national leader in defence maritime autonomy.

The money was not new on the day. The Defence Growth Deal was announced just over a year ago, and in April 2026 the £50 million deal was set out as a way to expand the National Centre for Marine Autonomy and set up a Plymouth Marine Autonomy Trials Authority. What changed in September is that the business case cleared its approval step, so the funding can now be invested in the city.

There is still work to do on the plan itself. The five core partners, the Ministry of Defence, Babcock International Group, Plymouth City Council, the University of Plymouth and City College Plymouth, will now work together to refine the business case. That wording matters for anyone hoping to be hired soon.

The package also reaches beyond jobs. It is meant to support the regeneration of the Turnchapel waterfront and new industrial and commercial space across the city, and more than 400 UK businesses are expected to benefit from the wider programme, including firms in robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems.

Are These Jobs Open Now, or Are They Targets?

They are targets. The government's own wording is that the investment will create nearly 1,000 jobs and support 500 people into work, and the same release describes the effect as hundreds of new jobs to be created in Plymouth. Neither release breaks that target down by employer, job title or year, and neither gives a date by which the jobs should exist.

The clearest single number is attached to one project. The National Centre for Marine Autonomy is expected to create 120 jobs and attract more than 30 businesses, including start-ups and scale-ups building advanced maritime technology. Again, that is an expectation rather than a hiring plan.

So treat the headline as a signal of direction rather than a job board. The practical question for a job seeker is which employers and training routes are already open in Plymouth, and the rest of this article answers that from their own pages.

The investment is set to create nearly 1,000 jobs and support 500 people into work, but no employer list or hiring date comes with it yet.

Who Is the Get Plymouth Working Scheme For?

This is the part of the deal aimed most directly at people looking for work. The newly confirmed £1.5 million Get Plymouth Working scheme will help 500 people into jobs in defence, advanced manufacturing, engineering and construction, with a focus on veterans and young people aged 18 to 25.

Two wider training goals sit next to it. Around 750 people will gain new technical skills and qualifications, and more than 7,000 young people will benefit from STEM training. The skills programmes will be hosted by the University of Plymouth and City College Plymouth, and new STEM engagement and employment initiatives are meant to help local residents reach careers in defence, engineering, construction, manufacturing and digital industries.

What we could not find is an application page. None of the announcement pages we read give a sign-up link, an eligibility checklist or a start date for Get Plymouth Working. The listed focus on veterans and young people is a focus, and the pages do not say whether people outside those groups can join. If you are in either group, it is worth watching the partners' own news pages for the sign-up details.

A veteran leaving the forces with engineering or logistics experience fits the stated focus. So does someone in the scheme's 18 to 25 age band who has not yet picked a trade. A veteran should describe service roles in civilian terms, naming the equipment, systems and team sizes they handled.

What Is the National Centre for Marine Autonomy, and What Work Will It Bring?

Marine autonomy is the work of building surface and subsurface maritime drones, craft that run without a crew on board. The centre's own site describes it as ensuring the UK is at the forefront of one of the fastest-growing areas of dual-use technology, anchored in Plymouth and built around the largest naval base in Western Europe, industry, science and test facilities.

The work behind it spans several skill sets. The centre lists a test bed that combines onshore labs with offshore ranges to validate next-generation marine autonomous systems, along with research in ocean technology and maritime cyber security, and an industry hub of companies building autonomous vessels, sensors and AI-enabled maritime technology. It also points to the UK's only Defence Freeport, offering more than 88 hectares of employment land across three tax sites.

The new funding will pay for new facilities and capacity at the University of Plymouth and Plymouth Marine Laboratory, accelerate regeneration across key sites and support businesses trying to scale. The centre's site lists the fields it covers, including data and sensors, robotics labs, simulation and digital twins, and test ranges, but none of the pages we read name specific job titles.

The city already has a base to build on. When Plymouth was named the national centre in June 2025, the city council put the figure at over 7,100 skilled people in marine manufacturing locally, with the blue tech and marine sector making up 11.3 per cent of the city's total employment. The same page listed marine autonomy companies already based in Plymouth as Thales, M Subs, Oshen, Zero USV, Sonardyne and Fugro.

What Trade Apprenticeships Does Babcock Run at Devonport?

Babcock calls itself one of the region's largest employers and a founding member of the partnership, and its own careers pages set out the trades. Its engineering trades apprenticeships train people to work on the Royal Navy's fleet, either building new vessels or maintaining ships already in service, with programmes at several sites including Devonport in Plymouth.

At Devonport, the trade routes on Babcock's engineering trades page include:

• Fabricating, working metals to build ship parts and learning welding and cutting equipment.
• Mechanical fitting, installing and repairing engines, pumps, valves and hydraulic equipment.
• Electrical fitting, reading drawings and installing and testing circuits on ships and submarines.
• Pipefitting, making and installing low and high pressure pipe systems.
• CNC machining, making precision components on turning and milling machines.
• Welding, from factory work to major structural welding on Royal Navy vessels.

The pay step at the end is published too. On completing the programme, apprentices become qualified Engineering Technicians earning a competitive salary of c.£35,000, with the option to go on to further qualifications. The same page has a section for people thinking about changing career, with stories from apprentices who made the switch.

The numbers at Devonport are published too. Invest Plymouth's National Apprenticeship Week profile put Babcock's count at 610 Emerging Talent apprentices on programme across more than 20 apprenticeship routes, and it planned to recruit a further 239 apprentices for its 2026 intake. Babcock's December 2025 announcement put that year's Devonport intake at a record 362 new starters, including 235 apprentices across 27 programmes ranging from Level 2 entry roles to Level 6 degree apprenticeships.

Babcock planned to recruit a further 239 apprentices for its 2026 intake at Devonport, on top of the 610 it had on programme there at the time.

What if You Are Not Ready for a Full Apprenticeship Yet?

There is a step before the apprenticeship, and it is easy to miss. Babcock runs a pre-apprenticeship programme at City College Plymouth, which was in its second year with 32 learners. It is for people who are not yet ready for a full apprenticeship, and it lets them gain an engineering qualification alongside maths and English GCSEs.

The payoff is a shortcut to interview. Successful participants are fast-tracked to interview for the next intake of apprentices. For someone who still needs maths and English GCSEs, this is the most direct route into the dockyard we found.

Timing is the thing to plan around. Applications for Babcock's 2026 apprentice intake opened in December 2025, and the trade routes and sites are listed on Babcock's early careers pages.

What Can City College Plymouth and the University Offer You?

Both institutions have new defence money of their own, separate from the growth deal. Through the defence-related skills funding competition of the Office for Students, City College Plymouth was allocated £1,617,000 in programme funding and £410,358 in capital funding, and the University of Plymouth £5,334,000 and £1,634,524. The programme money supports extra places on computing and engineering courses at Levels 4 to 6, for cohorts starting in 2026-27, 2027-28 and 2028-29.

At the college, that money is meant to create over 200 additional higher education student places in marine engineering, marine autonomous vehicles, cyber security, computer science and integrated technologies engineering. City College was also named one of only five Defence Technical Colleges of Excellence in April, alongside colleges in Blackpool, Lincoln, Yeovil and the RNN Group, and that designation builds on a £1.62 million investment recently confirmed to upgrade its facilities.

At the university, the facilities money pays for specific kit. The University of Plymouth plans a £520,000 upgrade to the robotics systems within the Autonomous Systems Test Laboratory of its Babbage Building. It also plans a £475,000 investment in marine autonomy platforms and deployment capabilities at its waterfront Marine Station. A third item is a £750,000 upgrade that integrates the maritime simulator suite with the maritime cyber security laboratories in its Marine Building. The aim is to grow student numbers on courses from civil engineering and computer science to robotics, ocean exploration and data science.

If you want a qualification that sits between a trade and a degree, compare the higher technical courses the college is expanding with an apprenticeship route.

Why Is Plymouth Getting This Money?

Defence is already a big spender in the region. The MOD spent more than £6.6 billion in the South West in 2024/25. That spending directly supported 37,300 industry jobs, with almost £400 million going to SMEs. On top of that, £7 billion is already being invested in HMNB Devonport as part of the largest naval infrastructure programme since the end of the Cold War.

Plymouth was also picked as a priority area. In September 2025 it was named one of five national defence growth areas in the UK Defence Industrial Strategy, backed by a £250 million UK-wide investment. The council's page listed training fields for the deal's skills work, including electrical engineering, renewable energy systems, nuclear operations and autonomy.

Other defence employers are already investing in the city. The same council page points to a £350 million investment by defence tech firm Helsing and Babcock's expansion into Sherford with a new logistics hub and advanced manufacturing base. When the £50 million deal was set out in April, it was also meant to support City College's skills hub, along with teaching capacity at colleges and universities for 60 new defence-related courses such as advanced manufacturing, engineering and technology.

What This Means for Job Seekers, and What Should You Do Next?

Our take is that this deal is more useful as a map than as a job offer. The headline figure is a target with no named employers and no dates, and the partners are still refining the plan. But the direction is clear, and the defence skills money for the college and university has already been allocated. That makes the training routes the part a job seeker can act on without waiting for a vacancy list.

For people without a degree, the trade apprenticeships are the most concrete route we found. Welding, fitting, pipefitting and CNC machining are the trades Babcock trains for work on the Royal Navy's fleet at Devonport, and the trade apprenticeship ends at a published salary.

Here is what we would do now:

• Pick a lane. Trades at the dockyard, higher technical courses at the college, or a degree in robotics, computing or engineering at the university.
• Check your grades. If maths and English GCSEs are the gap, the Babcock pre-apprenticeship at City College Plymouth lets you gain an engineering qualification alongside those GCSEs.
• Watch for Get Plymouth Working. If you are a veteran or a young adult in the scheme's stated age band of 18 to 25, follow the partners' news pages for the scheme's sign-up details.
• Plan for the next intake. Babcock opened applications for its 2026 intake in December 2025, in the year before that intake.
• Translate your experience. Veterans should rewrite service roles in plain civilian terms, with equipment, systems and team sizes.
• Look beyond Babcock. The council's June 2025 list of marine autonomy companies in Plymouth includes Thales, Sonardyne and Fugro.

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People Also Asked

Q: How many jobs will the Plymouth defence deal create?

A: The target is nearly 1,000 jobs, but no employer breakdown or hiring dates have been published. The one project with its own figure in the release is the National Centre for Marine Autonomy, expected to create 120 jobs.

Q: Who can join the Get Plymouth Working scheme?

A: The £1.5 million scheme aims to help 500 people into defence, advanced manufacturing, engineering and construction jobs, with a focus on veterans and young people aged 18 to 25. The announcement pages do not yet give eligibility rules or a sign-up link.

Q: How much do Babcock engineering apprentices earn after qualifying?

A: Babcock's careers page puts the salary for a qualified Engineering Technician at c.£35,000 once the trade apprenticeship is complete.

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