Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a STEM education strategy.

Several government strategies are already in place to support our STEM ambitions, including the 2021 UK Innovation Strategy, the 2021 National AI Strategy, and the 2022 UK Digital Strategy. They set out how the department will strengthen its reserves of talent and skills in order to drive success.

The department is focused on delivery. We are encouraging more students to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects across all key stages, from primary school to further and higher education, ensuring a strong pipeline of qualified students for STEM careers. By developing employer-centred skills programmes such as apprenticeships, T Levels, and Higher Technical Qualifications, the department is empowering industry to shape our training offers to meet their needs and create more routes into skilled STEM roles.

We are investing in programmes that support science, technology, and digital skills, such as programmes that support teachers to improve the quality of science teaching. From autumn 2022, early careers teachers can claim a levelling up premium of £3,000 tax free per year for up to three years, to teach mathematics, physics, chemistry, or computing in state funded secondary schools that have been identified as having a high need for teachers.

Alongside this, the department is investing in Institutes of Technology, which are leaders in the provision of high quality, higher level technical education and training across a range of STEM occupations and industries.

Additionally, the department is investing in STEM in higher education, delivering a 12% increase in grant funding for strategically important, high-cost subjects such as medicine, engineering, and computing.

The government cannot achieve its ambition to be a science and technology superpower alone, and so efforts to work closely with businesses, including through the new Digital Skills Council, are being made to drive forward industry led action to address current and future demand for digital skills.