How we’re widening access to careers in defence and security

The defence and security sector is on a mission to create a more diverse workforce. To respond to the threats we face as a nation, it must build diverse teams representing the widest possible range of perspectives.

Addressing the diversity deficit remains as crucial as ever given that defence and security are increasingly reliant on data-driven technologies. AI systems, for example, inherit the biases of their human creators – biases that must be eliminated if these systems are to be trusted to guide decision-making on issues of national security. It’s vital, then, that those entering data science careers within the sector reflect the rich diversity of the UK population.

Here at the Turing, we’ve been collaborating with the UK’s intelligence agencies on initiatives to boost their efforts as they strive to broaden access to defence and security careers. Our programme of activities and events includes the award-nominated Turing Summer Experience – targeted at young people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds – as well as internships for undergraduates and a careers roadshow.

Diversity in defence

The intelligence community has historically been male-dominated and lacked ethnic diversity. This picture is now changing. For example, among new joiners to MI5 in 2021/2, women (53%) outnumbered men and 23% were non-white. At MI6, women now make up 38% of the total workforce and ethnic minority groups account for 8.8%. While, at GCHQ, which recently appointed its first female director, 36% of the workforce are female and staff from ethnic minority groups have increased to 5.9%.

Social mobility statistics are harder to come by for defence and security specifically, but we know that people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are underrepresented in scientific careers, and take longer to advance.

Despite steady progress, intelligence agencies and organisations recognise there is still more to do. But the issues they face in increasing the diversity of their workforce are compounded by misunderstandings about the stringent requirements for security clearance – including the misplaced perception that these requirements are too hard to navigate for those whose families are from outside the UK. In 2022, MI5, MI6 and GCHQ updated their parental nationality rules, so that the only nationality requirement is to be a British citizen.

Building a better workforce

External organisations can help meet the challenge, by operating on the behalf of intelligence agencies to engage with people in ways that are more broadly relevant to careers in defence and security, whilst offering independent advice to potential job candidates on accessing a range of different career paths within the sector. The Turing’s defence and security careers project takes this approach, providing a complement to the agencies' own diversity initiatives. For the last two years, our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) team has worked with Turing researchers, and partners at the Cabinet Office, Defence Artificial Intelligence Centre, Defence Science and Technology Lab, GCHQ, MI5 and MI6, on a pilot programme of activities intended to help young people from diverse backgrounds explore careers in data science and AI, within the defence and security sector.

Our flagship initiative is the Turing Summer Experience, a week of hands-on activities and real-world challenges taking place during the school summer holidays. Targeting 16 and 17-year-olds (year 12 in English and Welsh schools), it is designed with students from less advantaged backgrounds in mind. To take part, students must meet at least one of three criteria: eligibility for free school meals, parents or carers who don’t have degree-level (or above) qualifications, and living in a deprived area according to the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index.

The Turing Summer Experience was a finalist at the Knowledge Exchange Awards, in the 'Equality, Diversity and Inclusion through Knowledge Exchange' category, in November 2024

From our perspective, the Summer Experience is not necessarily about giving young people the skills they need for a career in defence and security. It’s about opening their eyes to the kinds of opportunities they could pursue within the sector – particularly within data science and AI. As all the activities are delivered by Turing researchers, data scientists and students, with guest speakers from the defence and security community, the sessions provide students with a rare chance to meet real experts from the field and talk to them about what they do.

Signs of success

Over the last two years, more than 200 young people from diverse backgrounds have taken part in the Summer Experience. Springboarding off the success of the first, London-based week of activities in 2023, this year, we expanded to three cities – adding Leeds and Cardiff. The 2024 edition saw 135 students get involved in activities themed around cryptography, AI language models and computer vision; one of the most popular was a 'safe-cracking' cryptography workshop.

We’ve successfully reached our target audience, with 91% of this year’s participants meeting one or more of our three socioeconomic criteria. (In addition, 41% identified as female and 29% as from a black background.) We know that, for many, the experience makes a big difference to their interest and confidence in finding a job in defence and security, or data science and AI. 54% of students surveyed after the 2023 edition said they would like to apply for roles in government intelligence agencies, compared to 30% before. Meanwhile, 94% (versus 22% before) agreed they understood the steps they would need to take to enter a data science career.

Anecdotally, we also see students grow in their belief that a career in intelligence or defence and security is 'for them' – that it’s not a career path exclusively for men or people from private school backgrounds.

We hope that the Summer Experience can act as inspiration and potentially a model for other research institutes developing careers initiatives targeting people from diverse backgrounds. As for our 2025 edition, we’re already cementing plans to take the Summer Experience further afield, to help more students see that a career in defence and security could be for them.

To learn more about careers in defence and security, explore the careers pages for the Defence Science and Technology Lab, GCHQ, Security Service (MI5) and Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). We are also grateful to our partners at the Defence Artificial Intelligence Centre and Cabinet Office

For more on data science and AI careers, check out the Turing’s Spotlight Series podcasts and videos

Text: the EDI and Defence and Security teams at The Alan Turing Institute

Top image: the Turing Summer Experience