Number Skills for Life

In May 2022 the Scottish Government published its Adult Learning Strategy 2022-27, which sets out its actions to improve life chances for adult learners across Scotland, making sure there are accessible opportunities for adults to learn throughout their lives. And being confident with numbers is one such life skill. You may not have thought, but numbers are everywhere in our everyday lives: 

• When we cook we are constantly using maths to measure ingredients and adjust cooking times
• We need to use maths to manage our money effectively, whether that’s to work out how much money we’ve got to spend on this week’s food shopping or to budget for a special treat
• Doing DIY is a classic example of maths in action, as we need to use maths to measure out materials, calculate angles or work out how much paint to buy to decorate a room
• Telling the time can be tricky, but it’s something we all use everyday to make sure we get to places on time or when to take dinner out of the oven!
• We all love a bargain – but is the deal really as good as the shop says? Is two for one a better deal than three for a pound? How much will you actually save with a 25% discount? Maths can help you become a more savvy shopper

 Evidence from national numeracy surveys suggests while Scotland performs slightly better than average for the UK in terms of adult numeracy skills, there are still around 56% of adults with low numeracy skills. This is the equivalent of 1.9 million working age adults. Getting to grips with numbers can be daunting. But there are a few simple steps you can take to become more confident and improve your life chances. Adults with a good grasp of numbers have a greater chance of getting a job and having higher wages. 

• If you are confident using the internet and can work on your own you may find resources such as,
• the BBC Teach Skillswise website is useful, where they have free videos and downloadable worksheets to help adult learners improve their calculation and numeracy skills – you can find the website here
• and National Numeracy is an independent charity with a vision for everyone in the UK to get on with numbers so they can get on in life. It also has a great website – which you can find here
• Multiply is a free programme aimed at adults, that helps them improve their functional numeracy skills through personal tutoring, digital training, and flexible courses. It boosts people’s ability to use maths in their daily life, at home and work – and enables adults to achieve formal qualifications that can open doors for them, be that to get a job or help them progress to further study

 So, if you are interested in participating in the Multiply programme, are over 16 and live in Clacks, we can help! We offer a huge range of support - workshops, courses and one to one support – aimed at, those who are taking their first steps into numeracy parents who wish to learn with their children and improve their overall skills those requiring numeracy to access a certain job or career people who want to use numbers to better manage your money those with experience of the criminal justice system those who are leaving or just leaving care people interested in achieving qualifications at SQA Core Skills Level 5 Numeracy Click here to book your 1-2-1 session with our experienced tutors who are General Teaching Council registered.  If you are interested in finding out even more about how Clackmannanshire Economic Regeneration Trust (CERT) can help you, please visit our website