EMBARK : Space for all pioneers
Space STEM Programmes for Schools & communities | The Spacing Guild
The space sector is disconnected from the public it serves. We build the programmes that close that gap.
The Spacing Guilds EMBARK designs and delivers dedicated space STEM programmes for primary and secondary schools, and runs outreach on behalf of space companies who want to reach the public but don't have the capacity to do it themselves.
The disconnect...
The UK space sector is one of the countries fastest-growing industries, and one of the least visible to the people living in it.
Most of the public could not name a single British space company. Most schoolchildren think a career in space means becoming an astronaut. Ask them about the industry that actually exists — the contracts managers, ground segment operators, machinists, supply chain leads, data analysts, systems engineers and mission planners — and there is nothing there. Not disinterest. Absence.
That disconnect costs the sector three ways:
A workforce it cannot fill. The industry is growing faster than the pipeline of people who know it exists, and the shortage falls hardest on young people with no family connection to STEM and no one to tell them these are real, reachable jobs.
A public that doesn't understand what it's funding. A sector this dependent on public investment needs public understanding behind it. Most people use space technology dozens of times a day — navigation, weather, banking, broadcast, climate monitoring, disaster response — and have no idea.
Companies with outreach obligations they can't meet. Grant conditions, ESG commitments and investor expectations increasingly require public engagement. Most space SMEs are twelve engineers and no communications function. The intent is there; the capacity is not.
We work on all three.
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How we work with you
1. Sponsored school programmes
*A space company or funder sponsors the programme. Schools receive it free.*
Our flagship model, and the one we recommend. A sponsor funds a programme of sessions across a school, a trust or a region. Schools pay nothing. The sponsor gets genuine, evidenced public engagement — with reach numbers, photography, case study material and reporting they can put in front of a grant body, an investor or a board.
This is outreach that actually happens, rather than outreach that stays on a slide.
2. Commissioned programmes
*Schools, multi-academy trusts, universities and careers hubs commission us directly.*
Where you hold a budget — widening participation, careers provision, enrichment, pupil premium — we design and deliver a programme built around your cohort and your objectives, with the evidence and reporting you need to justify the spend.
3. Outreach delivered on your behalf
*We become your company's outreach function.*
For space companies that need to demonstrate public engagement but have no one to run it. We design the programme, secure the schools, deliver the sessions, brief your staff to take part, and hand you the reporting. Your name on it, our delivery behind it.
Available as a one-off campaign or an annual retained programme.
4. Pro bono
*A defined share of our capacity, given free, every year.*
We hold back a fixed allocation of programme days each year for schools and community groups with no budget and no sponsor — prioritising areas with low STEM participation and no existing space sector presence. This is not a discount scheme and it is not marketing. It is the part of this we would do regardless.
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Our STEM programmes
Primary — Key Stages 1 and 2
Space Is Already In Your Pocket
Where space technology shows up in everyday life. Satellites, weather, maps, television. Hands-on, curriculum-linked to Earth and space science, and built around the idea that space is not somewhere else — it is infrastructure we all use.
Build It, Launch It, Land It
A practical engineering challenge series. Design constraints, testing, failure, iteration. Children learn how engineering actually works: not by getting it right first time, but by getting it wrong usefully.
Who Works In Space?
An introduction to the range of real jobs in the sector, pitched at an age where children are forming ideas about what people like them do.
Secondary — Key Stages 3, 4 and 5
The Jobs Nobody Told You About
The honest space careers session. Real roles, real salaries, real entry routes. Apprenticeships and technical pathways treated as seriously as degrees, because for many students they are the better option. Maps to Gatsby Benchmarks 2, 4, 5 and 7.
Mission Design Challenge
A multi-session programme where students specify, design and cost a real mission concept — including the parts nobody teaches: budget, schedule, risk and trade-offs. Links to physics, maths, design technology and computing.
Space and the Climate
How Earth observation underpins climate science, agriculture, disaster response and environmental policy. A route into the sector for students motivated by environmental impact rather than rockets.
Route In...
For sixth form and college students making post-18 decisions. What the sector wants, what it pays, what to study, and what to do if university isn't the plan.
Across both
Teacher CPD
Half-day and full-day sessions equipping teachers to deliver space content themselves — extending your reach far beyond the days we are on site.
Industry connection days
Site visits, employer encounters and Q&A with people working in the sector. We use our commercial network to open doors schools cannot open alone.
Bespoke programmes
Tell us your cohort, your objectives and your constraints. We build to them.
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Why us?
We know the sector commercially, not just enthusiastically.Our day job is inside space companies, negotiating their contracts, building their sales functions, planning their exits. When we tell students what the jobs are, we are describing the ones we have recruited for.
We understand the technology. Our founder holds a Master's in Aerospace Engineering, Astronautics and Space Technology. All delivery and planning staff hold technical space relevant degrees. Sessions are technically accurate, and questions get real answers.
We have made the journey ourselves Kevin our founder left a twenty-year commercial career to retrain in aerospace engineering. For students and career changers weighing a hard decision, that is a more useful story than a lifelong specialist's.
We build programmes, not appearances. A single assembly changes very little. Sequenced programmes with follow-up, evidence and teacher capability change measurably more — and that is what we design.
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For sponsors and partners
If your organisation needs to demonstrate public engagement, meet grant or ESG conditions, or build recognition in your region, sponsoring a schools programme is among the most cost-effective ways to do it — and one of the few that produces something genuinely worth having.
What you get:
- A named programme delivered in schools you help select
- Your staff involved as speakers and role models, briefed and supported
- Reach and participation data, photography and case study material
- Reporting formatted for grant bodies, investors and boards
- Recognition across programme materials and this site
Discuss sponsorship
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Get involved
Schools, colleges and trusts — tell us your key stage, cohort size, timescale and objectives.
Enquire about a programme
Space companies — sponsor a programme, or hand us your outreach entirely.
Talk to us
Universities and careers hubs— widening participation and careers provision partnerships.
Partner with us
Individuals in the sector — join our speaker and mentor network.
Volunteer
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