It is well-known that the skills needed for the future world of work will be different to today, as Nesta’s 2017 report The Future of Skills: Employment in 2030 explored.

Although there is a level of uncertainty around these future needs, there is strong evidence that maths skills and collaborative problem-solving will be particularly important.

The World Economic Forum has made the case for a range of skills that will be increasingly important in the future job market, that include collaboration and problem-solving. Our report Solved! Making the case for collaborative problem-solving, published last year, explored how the UK can better equip young people with this skill set.

It is also widely agreed that maths skills are, and will continue to be, crucial for individuals to be successful in the world of work.

One of the major obstacles to maths and problem solving attainment is attitude – the belief that ‘some people just can’t do maths’. This limiting belief, which is prevalent in the UK, can encourage young people to disengage from an early age.

During the academic year 2017/2018, Tata, in partnership with Nesta, ran a series of pilot projects across England to find the most effective ways to increase young people’s interest in maths, and improve their maths and collaborative problem-solving skills. Based on the positive evaluation results of the pilot projects, Tata and Nesta worked together across the 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 academic years to scale up the work of the Maths Mission and pilot new activities to increase the reach and impact of the work.

Our second phase of projects included:

1. Cracking the Code: a game-based competition delivered with Mangahigh aimed at changing student's perception of maths, through classroom experiences, online maths games and collaborative group work;
2. Solving Together Fund: which supported early stage interventions tackling challenges in parental engagement in maths.
3. Young maths mentors: developing pupil maths and peer mentoring skills in schools, working with both Funkey Maths and Franklin Scholars.

Our findings and learnings can be found in the Maths Mission Evaluation Report.