ABET
Measuring up to numerical literacy
Employers have a major role to play in improving workforce basic skills and the Government is committed to meeting the skills challenges by helping to ensure employees have the right numerical literacy they need in their businesses as there is strong evidence that having poor literacy and numeracy skills has an adverse effect on earnings and employment prospects. Improving the skills of the workforce is an important objective for many Government policy initiatives as they want greater focus placed on learning numerical skills, realising that there is a strong correlation between numerical literacy and future earning potential.
There is evidence that there are many jobs for low skilled workers who require some numeracy skills, for example, cleaners need to understand proportion to assess how much cleaning fluid they need for different amounts of water. It is estimated that there are millions of adults with below entry level numeracy literacy, and it is important to ensure that employees in the labour market whose roles have mathematical demands have appropriate skills to carry out those roles effectively. They need to have a sense of the size of a number and have basic skills such as -
- use what they know by heart to figure out answers mentally
- calculate accurately both mentally and on paper
- recognise when it is appropriate to use a calculator and be able to use a basic one effectively
- understand suitable units for measuring and make sensible estimates of measuring
- make sense of number problems and understand how to solve them.
Numerical literacy must be taught in the context of real-life and workplace situations as adults can then that there is a practical application for that skill.
As we are bombarded with awareness about the ever growing gap between those who have access to today's information technologies and those who do not, it is difficult to not fear this growing abyss. In response, initiatives such as Triple e have invested in revolutionising education and training with their outstanding services and excellent results to narrow that gap.
