Giving young people the maths and English skills employers need
If you’re a parent, you’ve probably heard your teenager ask: “Why do I need to learn algebra? I’ll never use it in my career.”
If you’re a careers professional, maybe you’ve found yourself telling students: “Above everything else, get a pass in maths and English – otherwise you’ll be stuck with resits.”
Literacy and numeracy are vital. Employers repeat it endlessly. Yet the reality in schools is stark: increasing numbers of young people fail at 16 and then face resits. In August 2025, just one in six retakers passed GCSE maths. For me, that raises a huge question: is the current system working for our young people, or setting them up for repeated failure?
The 2025 GCSE Results: A Wake-Up Call
This year’s data made headlines:
- Maths – only 58.2% of students in England achieved a grade 4 or above.
- English – better at 70.6%, but still leaving nearly a third without a pass.
That means around 4 in 10 teenagers are now entering college or apprenticeships needing to resit maths, often while juggling full-time study or work.
As someone who’s been a maths teacher, head of department, GCSE tutor, and now careers professional, I’ve seen this cycle from every angle. And I can say with certainty: something has to change.
What Employers Actually Need
The truth is you can pass GCSE maths without an employer actually knowing what you can do, for example fractions or percentages. It’s a truism that you can pass GCSE maths without understanding fractions.
But ask any employer what matters, and they’ll tell you: it’s being able to calculate, problem-solve, and communicate in the real world. They need school leavers who can work out percentages, check stock levels, understand data and measurements.
Employers want clarity. They need qualifications that show what young people can do, and a GCSE pass doesn’t actually give them this detail.
Who Really Benefits from Resits?
Colleges know the score. Students with a GCSE grade 3 get targeted help, and many manage to move up to a pass. But those with grades 1 or 2? They’re often put on Functional Skills courses instead – numeracy and literacy for life and work.
These courses are vocational. They give young people confidence with money, forms, workplace maths, and practical communication. But right now, they’re treated as “second best” compared to GCSEs.
I believe Functional Skills courses should be offered much earlier, from Year 10. For some students, it could replace the demoralising treadmill of chasing a GCSE they’re unlikely to achieve.
Listening to Young People
In careers interviews, I hear the same thing from a sizeable minority of students again and again: “I wish I could leave school now and just get into work.” These students are hungry for hands-on learning not more academic learning .
So why not give them the chance? A vocational route from Year 10, built around real skills and employer links, could transform motivation. Yes, entitlement matters – every child should have the right to study history if they choose. But for some, a purely academic model is a poor fit.
The Reform Debate: Big Voices Agree
I’m not alone in calling for reform. Three influential voices recently made the case:
- Jill Duffy, Chief Executive of OCR, argues for a new balance in maths qualifications. In OCR’s 2024 Striking the Balance report, she proposed a Year 10 short course focused on core numeracy – fractions, percentages, ratios – as a standalone qualification. This would give employers clear evidence of essential skills while still allowing GCSE study for those who want it. She called the current system a “cycle of resits, misery and a sense of failure.”
- Geoff Barton, former General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, pushed for a new literacy and numeracy qualification that avoids the “cliff-edge” of GCSE passes and failures. His argument? A more humane system that doesn’t trap teenagers in endless retakes.
- Professor Alan Smithers, Director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham, was blunt: resits are “soul-destroying.” He argues GCSEs don’t always reflect the skills young people need for life and work. Instead, he suggests alternative programmes that help teenagers “achieve fluency in handling words and numbers.”
Together, these perspectives highlight what many of us see on the ground: the system isn’t broken beyond repair, but it is failing too many young people.
Parents’ Voices: The MBacc Experiment
Perhaps the most powerful pressure for change comes from parents. In Greater Manchester, their views shaped the design of the new MBacc (Manchester Baccalaureate).
Parents asked for:
- Maths and English for life, not just for exams.
- A qualification system that connects directly to real jobs in the local economy.
The MBacc keeps GCSEs but packages them with technical and vocational qualifications, plus strong links to employers. It’s designed to give practical routes into the careers the region needs most.
This parental demand is telling. Families aren’t rejecting rigour – they’re rejecting a system that equates failure in one exam with failure in life.
My Career Perspective: Where Next?
From my vantage point across teaching, careers guidance, and adult employability, here’s where I land:
- GCSEs aren’t enough – they don’t always reflect the skills employers actually need.
- Resits don’t work – they demoralise more than they motivate.
- Functional Skills deserve respect – as equal, not second-class, qualifications.
- Early vocational routes could change lives – giving non-academic students a chance to thrive sooner.
Ultimately, it comes back to careers. Every young person deserves the chance to enter the labour market with confidence. That means qualifications which prove they can handle real-world maths and English – whether that’s through GCSE, Functional Skills, or new “short course” models like OCR suggests.
The current model is letting too many down. Reform isn’t optional – it’s urgent.
Final Thought
GCSE maths and English were never meant to be gatekeepers that shut young people out. They were meant to show what students can do. It’s time to get back to that spirit.
As parents, educators, employers, and careers professionals, we all share the same goal: giving young people the skills, confidence, and opportunities to build successful lives. That’s why the conversation about reform matters – and why we mustn’t let another generation get stuck in the cycle of resits.
