The ADS New Professionals Forum (NPF) is an ADS member networking and professional development forum for industry professionals new to the aerospace, defence, security & space sectors. With a new year and a new committee, we thought it would be good to let you know what the NPF hopes to accomplish this year.
Below is a graphic summarising the main activities we plan to carry out this year:
If you are a new professional looking for an outlet into which to channel your passion for your industry, or a forum in which to make your voice heard and bring your thoughts to peers and industry seniors, then we offer our group as a home in which to do just that.
Read on to learn more information about what we’re going to be involved in this year, and where you can help too:
Want to hear from new professionals making strides in their careers or the journeys and tips of more senior staff?
One of the first things we have already achieved is the launch of a new monthly series of webinars on a wide range of topics including career development, insights into niche roles, and more. We are happy to announce the first of these webinars is taking place in March, with the hopes of making it a monthly occurrence. Please come along!
Retention and Skills Research Group – what makes one new professional choose to remain working for their current company/industry and another to look elsewhere?
We believe that this topic is of personal importance to all new professionals, and in the interest of the healthy growth of talent within our sectors we want to help address any common themes that may cause new employees to start looking else (e.g. the sudden change in engagement after finishing a grad scheme) and look to help promote the factors that increase the likelihood of someone staying with their company or sector long-term. Like our mentoring scheme, we have another dedicated working group that is building on our work in 2021, in which we conducted research into skills and retention within the space sector, and from this created six recommendations on preventing loss of talented staff, including mentoring (see below), interactive career development paths, and cross-sectoral secondments which we presented to industry leaders at our annual conference last November.
Has your career benefitted from mentoring?
As the members of the NPF, we certainly feel that mentoring has made a big difference to us, so that’s why we’ve founded a new project for 2022 – the creation of a new cross-sectoral mentoring scheme. This is the sole focus of a dedicated working group within the NPF, and you’ll hear more about this in the coming months as we begin to publicise the project and opportunities to take part.
Building towards our Annual Conference, November 2022.
The ADS NPF has hosted an annual conference since our inception, and this year will be no different. As an opportunity to network with peers, meet industry seniors, and present the NPF’s work, as well as a wide range of talks and sessions hosted by new professionals and senior speakers, the conference is always a pleasure to attend, and we look forwards to meeting you there. Last year our theme was Sustainability in Space, covering everything from sustainability of resources to sustainability of people and skills – and we were honoured to host a fantastic set of speakers, including the Minister for Science, Research and Innovation, George Freeman MP.
Interested in knowing more?
To keep up to date with our work, make sure to join our group through the ADS website and follow us on LinkedIn. Our group is entirely led and run by new professionals from a large list of different companies, so whether you join us for a webinar, or wish to join our committee or working groups and help run our programmes, it would be great to have your involvement.
For more information please feel free to get in touch at npf@adsgroup.org.uk
