Gordon Brown is due to visit a newly-built secondary school to highlight the massive public spending programme which he hopes will help Britain beat recession.
The Government's £40 billion investment programme for 2009 is central to the Prime Minister's plan to restore economic growth and create 100,000 jobs, and schools and colleges across England are expected to benefit from refurbishment and rebuilding.
Mr Brown will visit Swindon and south Wales on the third day of a regional tour to see for himself the effects of the credit crunch, which on Thursday saw the Cabinet hold its weekly meeting in Liverpool.
Meanwhile, Conservative leader Mr Cameron is travelling to the North East, where he will meet senior representatives of car maker Nissan UK, which on Thursday announced it was cutting 1,200 jobs at the UK's biggest motor plant in Sunderland.
The loss of almost a quarter of the plant's 5,000-strong workforce cast a pall over a day which also saw the Bank of England cut interest rates by half a point to a historical low of 1.5% in an attempt to deliver a jolt to the foundering economy.
Visiting the new Isambard Community School in Swindon, Mr Brown will set out Government plans to spend £21.9 billion on school capital projects between 2008 and 2011 - a sevenfold increase on 1996/97.
He will say that the biggest programme of investment in the fabric of schools in a generation will benefit every primary, secondary, academy and special school in England.
Since 1997, more than 1,100 schools have been built or rebuilt - 13 of them in Swindon alone, where the next couple of years are set to see a further £50 million spent on school buildings and facilities - said Downing Street.
Setting out the rationale behind increases in public investment at a time when families and businesses are scaling back spending, an aide said: "The economic slowdown must not be an excuse to slow down the pace of investment and reform to strengthen our country for the future.
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Mr Cameron will tour a manufacturing business in Stockton-on-Tees and then visit the City of Sunderland College to meet staff and students to discuss training and development in the current economic climate.
