A group of Year 12 mathematicians recently visited the Department of Work and Pensions in Longbenton for a day of activities that was designed to help them to apply their analytical skills to real-life problems.

Following a talk about graduate-level careers at the DWP, the students worked with a statistician who guided them through a challenging task. This involved having to forecast the Government’s expenditure on pensions for the next five years, a calculation that relied on accurately predicting population growth over the same period.

After a tour of the facility and some lunch, the afternoon involved even more complex number-crunching. The problem that the students faced this time was how to save £50 billion from the national budget.

Offered a range of difficult and politically-charged decisions, the students were soon involved in a heated debate. However, this did not detract from what was an excellent day for which everyone involved is grateful to the DWP for arranging.