Govt expands school-business partnerships

Students will be partnered with rising stars of business to inspire them to boost their maths and science results.

An extra 12 schools around the country will get to trial the program known as Pathways in Technology Early College High School, or P-TECH, after a $4.6 million funding boost from the coalition.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Monday met students at McCarthy Catholic College in Emu Plains, in western Sydney, who will be partnered with young PwC employees.

He believes the program will change lives.

"There will be kids that are not particularly inspired by their studies - they're smart kids, they're hard-working kids but it doesn't seem terribly relevant to them at age 15," he told reporters at the school, which is in the marginal Liberal seat of Lindsay.

"And then they meet ... a young person from PwC who talks about their story, what they studied, and suddenly a light goes on and that 15-year-old boy or girl is inspired."

The program is designed to deliver better results in maths and science subjects and give students skills that employers want.

The initial P-TECH trial was announced by Tony Abbott in 2014, who was enthusiastic after seeing a similar program in action in the United States.

Nearly a year later, in August 2015, Mr Abbott announced two schools in Geelong and Ballarat would be the first guinea pigs.

Mr Turnbull's extra commitment will expand it to a dozen more schools.