As announced as part of the Autumn Budget, the government will provide £27m to expand the Teaching for Mastery maths programme into a further 3,000 schools, with a further £18m investment to open and fund maths schools across the country, providing an annual £350,000 for each school.

Schools which support and encourage students to study maths at a higher education will be given an extra £600 for every pupil who decides to take Maths or Further Maths A levels or Core Maths. The government has over £80m available initially, and there is no cap on the number of students.

An extra £40m has also been provided to establish Further Education Centres of Excellence across the country to train maths teachers and spread best practice.

John Williams, head of employer engagement at ACCA said: ‘The announcement about supporting the development of maths skills in the UK is encouraging. Maths and financial literacy are important, forming a firm foundation for business management, so the development of maths schools that will enable young people to develop their skills is welcomed – it will be a key step towards encouraging more young women into STEM subjects, in which they are historically underrepresented.

‘However, at ACCA, we believe there’s a need for not just maths and numeracy skills – young people need to be able to communicate the numbers really well. They have to be good with words and numbers. The accounting profession, like many other professions, needs diverse people from diverse backgrounds with diverse skills.’

Report by Amy Austin