National adult numeracy initiative launched Tuesday, July 13, 2010 - 10:14

At a time when more than one in five adults in the UK do not have the basic numeracy skills needed for modern everyday life, a new national adult numeracy initiative has been launched, by NIACE, unionlearn and National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM), which will see volunteers helping family, friends and colleagues with maths.

Maths Messengers will be trained to act as volunteers for parents, colleagues and workmates. These people will not necessarily be maths experts, instead they will be given the training and resources to promote maths and encourage the take up of learning.

The initiative, launched on Monday 12 July, at unionlearn's annual conference in London, includes the Maths 4 Us website, which is packed with resources for Maths Messengers, project leaders, tutors and learners.

Employers, libraries, Jobcentre Plus and Sure Start centres will use union reps, literacy tutors, librarians and public services staff to volunteer as maths messengers.

A recent survey by Leeds University of employers found that more than half said that union-led learning had improved the qualifications of their workforce, with 71 per cent saying it has increased the demand for learning among those with poor basic skills.

Another survey, conducted by the University of Central Lancashire, revealed that three-quarters of union learning reps have helped arrange courses for their colleagues and almost half have obtained funding for learning.

Sue Southwood, NIACE Programme Director for Literacy, Language and Numeracy, said:

"A lack of mathematical ability or confidence can have a dramatic effect on people's lives. If you have poor numeracy skills you're twice as likely to be unemployed as someone who's more confident. Evidence also shows that if you improve your numeracy skills between the ages of 21 and 34 you more likely to own their own homes, have savings and are less likely to be on benefits."

"It's vital we take urgent action to tackle people's fear of numeracy and we will support learning in a very wide range of activities. This will include supporting family learning, learning for staff and residents in care homes, community action projects and groups working on environmental issues, by offering numeracy tasters and online support so they can in turn encourage and enthuse adults to get involved in numeracy learning."

Judith Swift, unionlearn's National Union Development Manager, said:

"It's not fair that far too many adults have not had the right opportunities for them to get up to speed with maths and are now, literally, paying the price. Unions and ULRs have a proven track record in finding the right approach and language to encourage the take up of maths. It's time now to really step up the tempo and create a new culture and climate to break the negative image of maths. I remember a Unite ULR, who is now a maths specialist, saying to me last year, ‘I talk about the Maths Wall - we all seem to hit it at some point and give up. Unions are here to help us all climb our wall and get on'."

Joan O'Hagan, an associate of the National Centre of Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics, said:

"People who work out complicated bets in their head often call it commonsense, not maths; they keep the 'maths' word for the things they cannot do. If taught in the right way, maths is very exciting. There is a definite frisson when you make a break-though in the problem you have been struggling to understand. That is how maths can be."