Adults across Dorset are being urged to take more control of their finances and futures by enrolling for free and flexible maths courses.
Multiply is a new government-funded programme to help adults across the UK improve their numeracy skills.
Such skills are particularly crucial in managing budgets at this time of double-digit inflation – the highest for 40 years – with the cost of heating a home up 150 per cent and food prices up 20 per cent.
Multiply courses are open to anyone living in Dorset aged 19+ who doesn’t currently have maths GCSE at grade C (or equivalent).
They are being offered across Dorset by Skills & Learning Adult Community Education.
Participants can choose to learn either in-person or via online tutorials, all in small, relaxed and informal groups, led by friendly professional tutors.
Get Number Confident courses include everyday maths skills, managing money and understanding data.
Get Maths Confident for Work is designed for people who want to enhance their employability skills by building confidence and improving their maths skills for the workplace and career progression.
This is good preparation for those thinking about taking maths qualifications but are wanting to brush up their skills first.
Hannah Ball, Multiply Programme Manager, said: “We are all faced with maths problems every day, in all areas of our lives.
“From working out our weekly household budget, energy and fuel bills, to finding the best value mobile phone contract tariff, comparing mortgage rates and simply deciding whether that supermarket multibuy offer is as good as it seems.
“But for many of us maths evokes feelings of insecurity and even anxiety and that’s not surprising, as according to research, almost 50 per cent of us struggle with even basic maths.”
National Numeracy, a registered charity dedicated to improving the nation’s numeracy skills, says 49 per cent of the UK’s working-age population have the expected numeracy levels of a primary school child.
The group, which is backing Multiply, estimates that poor numeracy currently costs the UK economy a staggering £25 billion a year.
Kate Holmes, Multiply Learning Coordinator added: “With the cost of living so high, it has never been so important for us to feel able to navigate the cost of living crisis and feel more in control of our finances.
“Being more confident with numbers not only has a positive impact on our confidence and our wellbeing in everyday life, it can also make us feel able to support our children better in their education and even aim higher at work by boosting our employability.”
Multiply courses are fully flexible and can be accessed simply to improve basic maths skills or as a springboard to more advanced courses including GCSE and Level 2 Functional Skills.
All courses are tailored so participants can learn at a pace to suit them, along with support from their Skills & Learning tutors.
Skills & Learning Adult Community Education is hosting an Open Day at the Dolphin Shopping Centre in Poole on January 6 from 12pm to 4pm to give more details of Multiply and its other adult education courses.
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