ABSTRACT
This chapter starts with a discussion on the definitions, roles, and significance of skills and competencies within defence in the United Kingdom (UK). One of the constant discourses relating to defence in the UK is to consider the importance of technical and functional skills and competencies on myriad workforces. The chapter focuses on to articulate and debate the evolution of competency thinking and its relationship to defence reform, particularly from the Blair years onwards and the Smart Procurement Initiative of 1998. The development of skills and competency thinking in defence is intrinsically linked to broader defence reform, starting with the Smart Procurement initiative in 1998. The basic assumption often heard in government and across the military is that competencies and skills within the defence industrial base self-regulate through market forces. The chapter concludes with a discussion on skills and competency thinking relating to the UK defence system, drawing-out the system's complexities and contingent understandings.
