Mission
Working in partnership to drive world-class technical education
Provide employers with the skills that they need to succeed, now and in the future
Provide learners with an outstanding technical education and a full career relationship with HE and FE
Enable the South West to become one of the world’s leading regions for the digital, engineering and manufacturing technologies
As employers
tackle employers’ current skills gaps and anticipate their future skills needs, drawing on applied research
enable employers to attract, develop, retain and retrain local talent, reducing the need to recruit from outside of the region
provide industry standard, specialist training facilities locally, reducing the need to train outside of the region
put in place learning provision that is tailored to the needs of employers, more quickly
enable the existing workforce to retrain and upskill, as well as attracting new entrants to the digital, engineering and manufacturing sectors
provide strategic leadership across STEM provision and initiatives in the South West, making them more coherent and easier to navigate
enable academic learning to be based on contemporary industrial needs and kept future focussed
About Us
Weather and climate affect everybody, in the UK and worldwide. The Met Office exists to provide the most accurate weather and climate forecasts at the most appropriate times in the most useful formats to users across government, industry and the public. Whatever our different interests and needs our work is aimed at helping you make better decisions to stay safe and thrive.
Helping make better decisions drives what we do, focusing our work on making a difference to the people we serve and always delivering greater benefit and impact. In fact, we only really make a difference when our data, products, science, services and advice get into the hands of those who are going to use it to shape their lives and that of those around them.
Our expertise gives us unique insights into how the world around us is changing – whether it is the technology we use, how our customers consume, use and exploit our data, or, most importantly, the climate itself – and we need to be ready to meet the opportunities and challenges this brings.
We have an ambition to be recognised as global leaders in weather and climate science and services in a changing world. Only through world-class technology can we deliver with world-leading science that will enable us to meet this ambition.
The need for technology in the Met Office
Without technology the Met Office wouldn’t be where it is today. Technology is key to every area of our work – from science and forecasting to marketing and consultancy. When it comes to Information Technology, we lead the way. We’re constantly pushing ourselves to stay ahead of the game, exploiting technology to keep people safe, enable industries to operate, aircraft to take off and land safely, and Government to make key decisions. Working with global partners such as NASA, our IT projects reach as far as Space.
Innovation drives us forward. We thrive on new challenges, new technology and new ideas. That’s why having curious, talented people that see things through fresh eyes is so important to us.
State of the art networking infrastructure lay the foundations for our raw data all around the world. We use supercomputers to run our forecast models and predict the weather. In addition, Met Office scientists rely on a network of Linux computers to handle the large volumes of data required and for visualising model output and creating forecasts. Our people design, build and support the systems that deliver relied-upon forecasts 24/7, all over the world to meet the needs of our organisation and, most importantly, our customers.
Investing in SWIoT:
The Met Office is investing in SWIoT to support and shape high quality technical and engineering apprenticeships, graduate training programmes and placements within the workplace. Recognising the critical need for future technologists to solve some of the greatest challenges facing the world today is why it is critical we continue to develop science and technology students, apprentices, industrial placements and graduates.
Working at the Met Office:
As we house over 400 IT professionals at Met Office, opportunities exist for just about every type of technologist imaginable. Examples of the types of position we regularly recruit for include software developers, cyber security analysts, Java developers, UX Designers, web developer, support analysts, security analysts and architects.
The Met Office offers vacancies at all levels, but importantly a range of:
Industrial Placements work across a diverse range of areas within IT, developing and learning skills through a clear training plan and working with a variety of teams
Technology Graduate scheme which offers previous industrial placements the chance to return to the Met Office on successful completion of their undergraduate degree. You will undertake a 12-month training programme split into three 4-month placements with different teams across Technology.
Digital Apprenticeship scheme offers the opportunity to work in our Technology department learning a broad level of capability and developing your career whilst obtaining a BSc (Hons) in Digital and Technology Solutions course, taught by and awarded by the University of Exeter.