Careers advisers in schools and colleges

Maths is becoming one of the less popular subjects at school. Some would say poor teaching, or a syllabus which has little to do with the maths of everyday life, may be to blame, but another reason is definitely a view among many school pupils that maths is not a core subject but rather a specialised subject only to be studied by those who intend to go into one of the traditional mathematical careers such as banking and finance, IT and computing, or accountancy.

But the simple fact is, maths is a core subject, every bit as important as English. It is a vital part of several higher-level subjects and an important part of many others. But, much more than this, a mathematical education will provide many life skills which cannot be learnt anywhere else - numeracy, the ability to think logically and to process information accurately. And these are all skills which future employers will be looking for.

Earning power

A wide range of career options also means a chance to earn more money: a recent study, conducted by economists at the University of Swansea, showed that maths and computing degrees make the biggest difference to lifetime earnings. On average, a graduate of any degree can expect to earn £149,760 more in his or her lifetime than a person leaving education with two A levels. For maths and computing graduates, this figure rises to over £220,000!

And those that are really committed can achieve salaries far above the average: a look at job adverts from the finance sector shows figures between 40K and 150K offered to people with a maths background and a few years experience.

What do mathematicians do?

Mathematics is the language of the universe, as Galileo Galilei said, and today this fact is more apparent than ever. This is partly due to the rise of computers, which require everything, be it search engines, games, accountancy software or music, to be put into the language of maths. Equally important is the fact that many of the things that are essential to us as a society — research and development, policy decisions in the private or public sector, economical forecasts — are increasingly required to be based on hard, verifiable evidence. And it takes a mathematician to capture the essence of problems, solve them, design experiments and interpret them, and to assemble statistics. Thus, mathematically able people are required in almost every aspect of modern life.

On this website, you will find a wide range of information on what mathematicians do and what maths is used for. As the site grows, more information on employers of mathematicians will become available. The links below might be of particular interest to you: