People in secondary maths teaching jobs have come under scrutiny from an industry leader, who believes they are failing to give pupils comprehensive careers advice.

Hot on the heels of Vince Cable's comments regarding teachers who 'know nothing of the world of work', Jenny Body, the first female president of the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAS), has said teachers are ignorant to some career paths.

Unlike Dr Cable, she had some sympathy for teachers, stating the problem was not of their causing, but instead an issue with the system that sees them go from school to university and back to school.

She told TES: "We need to give them teaching material and experience, so they've got the anecdotes, so they can actually say truthfully that engineering and industrial activity is a good career.

"I think at the moment, because they don't know, they can switch a whole cohort of students off through ignorance really."

To combat the problem Ms Body wants all maths and physics teachers working in the UK's secondary schools to take annual sabbaticals in jobs across the engineering and industry.

The RAS president said existing one-off interventions and initiatives should still have a place, but a more comprehensive and formal scheme needed to be adopted to stop a shortage of adequately skilled candidates in the engineering sector. Ms Body believes if the education system does not find a way of encouraging more people into engineering, the industry would find itself "in very difficult circumstances" within the next decade.

Commenting on the idea of a sabbatical, Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed the principle, but said it was not a very realistic proposal at the moment, as schools could not cover the costs.

If you are looking for a maths or science teaching vacancy, would you welcome the idea of a working sabbatical? Is such drastic action needed? 

Tell us what you think.