Old-school notions of numeracy don't add up in modern workplaces

7 September 2007

Many workers undertake a range of maths-related tasks over the course of their working day - but most don't even know it.

With the importance of adhering to occupational health and safety regulations and the increasing use of new technologies, having appropriate numeracy skills in the workplace is essential.

However, a new report published by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) shows that many workers fail to recognise their existing numeracy skills because they misunderstand what being 'numerate' really means. As a result, they often lack confidence to participate in further numeracy-related learning, thus missing out on potential employment opportunities.

As co-author of the report Thinking beyond numbers: Learning numeracy for the future workplace, Beth Marr, says: "Looking at workers in manufacturing and aged care, we discovered that numeracy skills such as measuring, calculating, reading and interpreting diagrams, and using simple formulae are commonplace. However, most regard this as simply being 'part of the job' or 'common sense', perhaps because they don't resemble the mathematics they learned at school."

In fact, case studies undertaken with these workers proved they were capable of individual judgement and problem-solving beyond mere repetitive or procedural use of mathematics in their jobs.

The research suggests that encouraging employees to acknowledge and reflect upon their existing numeracy skills will help them become more confident in using and transferring their existing skills. More importantly, it will give them confidence to learn additional skills in order to improve their employment prospects.

Numeracy training is most effective when delivered in a non-threatening atmosphere by a team of trainers with both numeracy expertise and knowledge of the industry.

"Workers prefer numeracy training methods which least resemble anything they would have experienced in the classroom," say Marr. "For many, a more formalised setting may bring back negative experiences of school mathematics and block their ability to develop numeracy skills."

ENDS

Thinking beyond numbers: Learning numeracy for the future workplace has been produced by NCVER on behalf of the Australian Government and state and territory governments, with funding provided under the Australian Government's Adult Literacy National Project, through the Department of Education, Science and Training.

Copies can be accessed from http://www.ncver.edu.au/publications/1795.html.

Also released by NCVER today is Community adult language, literacy and numeracy provision in Australia, which is the first attempt to quantify the extent of non-accredited adult language, literacy and numeracy training provision in Australia.

Copies can be accessed from http://www.ncver.edu.au/publications/1796.html.

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