By Tim Stringer, director, Integral Build.
As a board member of Bristol Learning City, I was pleased with the Chancellor’s focus on young people in last week’s Budget and the need to concentrate on the skills required for us to remain competitive on a global platform.
As long as we can find enough teachers to fulfil the ambition for maths to be studied until the age of 18, this should encourage greater take up of careers that require technical skills. 
By this, I mean fluency in practical areas such as data handling and statistical modelling. Currently a quarter of pupils leave school with the maths skills we expect of a 10 year old, which just isn’t good enough.
The Chancellor also pledged that all schools will become academies, taking them out of the constraints of the national curriculum. This may have a positive impact if schools can use that flexibility in what and how they teach, to better prepare students for working life.
Bristol Learning City was established last year to promote learning and its power to change lives. We are focusing on four key areas – learning for life, reducing social isolation; learning for and in work, encouraging employers to create sustainable learning organisations; learning for everyone, increasing the wellbeing of all citizens and communities in a city of contrasts; and learning for education, raising the attainment of students through formal learning in Bristol schools, colleges and universities.
Earlier this month, we held two events that also put the spotlight on the need for more focus on skills in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).
At one we looked at how we can encourage higher take-up of construction as a career by women, who currently represent just 11% of the construction workforce in the UK.
And in a second, Lord Mayor of Bristol Clare Campion-Smith and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts joined the At-Bristol science team to celebrate the launch of Bristol Girls Make It!, aimed at increasing engagement in STEM subjects by girls and other under-represented groups.
Whether it’s construction and engineering, nursing or teaching, a solid foundation in STEM education will provide today’s young people with the foundation for a wide range of exciting and lucrative careers in the future. Let’s help put them on the right road – and Bristol on the map.
