If your job means that you can help to encourage others to get them thinking about numeracy and numeracy learning, you can use this website to help you get started.
If you are an intermediary, you may have identified several people who are keen to improve their numeracy skills. Why not get your ULR involved to negotiate time to train or starting up a learning centre? or you can think about how you can
identify barriers to numeracy
offer support for numeracy learning
talk about numeracy
be positive about numeracy
show the relevance of numeracy
For ULRs
Advertise
There are endless possibilities, but some suggestions are: put up posters, send fliers out with pay packets, or hold an information meeting or an open day when members and their families can come along and meet successful SfL learners.
Come up with a ‘learning logo’ and have it printed on a T-shirt to turn yourself into a walking advert. Be enthusiastic and creative!
Identify needs
You could hand out quizzes or checklists, invite members to a group meeting, arrange one-to-one interviews or have a casual chat. Get feedback from members – how would they like to find out more about how they can upskill? Be positive in your approach – don’t ask your members if they have a problem, encourage them to grasp a great opportunity!
Address issues
We all have busy lives, and members may have concerns about adding to other pressures such as time, workload, and external commitments and responsibilities. Be ready to discuss these, and to offer encouragement and solutions. For example, you could arrange classes to suit shift patterns, negotiate time off within working hours or investigate childcare provision.
Encourage
The more qualifications employees have, the more likely they are to receive workplace training – leading to better job prospects and a better chance of avoiding redundancy. Help members to see that by improving their numeracy skills they can take control of, and responsibility for, their future, both professionally and personally; it’s not about what your members can’t do, it’s about helping them to realise what they can do – unlock that potential and help them to benefit from their right to learn!
Getting employer involved
Teamwork is the key here, and success will come from building a strong partnership. How do you make it happen?
Know your facts
If you are not committed and enthusiastic, you can’t expect the employer to be. Learn as much as you can about Maths in the workplace and do some research into why it would benefit your workplace. The following issues may be relevant:
Are costly mistakes being made that could be eradicated with better Maths skills?
Are there problems with health and safety issues because employees can’t understand the regulations?
How do these problems impact on the bottom line?
Employees who have improved their skills are likely to be confident, motivated and receptive to further training.
Inevitably, there will be some hurdles to overcome on the way to setting up a successful learning programme. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but it will highlight a few of the more common issues and possible ways of tackling them.
| Possible issue with employer | Hints and tips |
| Employer commitment | Be well prepared when you pitch the idea – present a strong case, describing motivated members, benefits to the workplace and a positive impact on the bottom line. Focus on partnership. |
| Employer is reluctant to agree to release time | If release time can’t be negotiated, try incorporating the learning into existing staff development programmes, for example building learning into an induction programme for new employees or using positive and inspiring promotion to encourage members to be willing to learn in their own time. |
The Skills Pledge
The government, working with employers, launched The Skills Pledge in 2007. The Skills Pledge is a voluntary, public commitment by the leadership of a company or organisation to support all its employees to develop their basic skills, including literacy and numeracy, and work towards relevant, valuable qualifications to at least Level 2 (equivalent to 5 good GCSEs). The purpose is to ensure that all staff are skilled, competent and able to make a full contribution to the success of the company/organisation. (LSC, 2008)
The Skills Pledge is open to employers of all sizes in the private, public and voluntary sectors. To date almost 4000 employers have made the Skills Pledge. For more details see http://inourhands.lsc.gov.uk/employers.html
