Key messages

Thinking beyond numbers: Learning numeracy for the future workplace

Through interviews with a range of stakeholders and workers in manufacturing and aged care, this study examined the use, learning and transference of workplace numeracy skills, as well as current understandings of the term ‘numeracy’. The study challenges the training system, training organisations, and trainers to provide numeracy training that makes links directly to workplace contexts.

• Numeracy skills are vital in the workplace context and will become more so because of the increasing use of technology.
  
  
• Many workers tacitly and competently exercise numeracy skills in the workplace, despite lacking confidence in their abilities, which is often associated with negative experiences of secondary school mathematics.
  
  
• Numeracy skills can be extended by being framed within other workplace training, pitching them at an appropriate and attainable level and having practical application for the worker, and ideally be designed and delivered by a training team which has both adult numeracy expertise and local enterprise and industry knowledge.

Copyright © NCVER 2003-2010    ABN 87 007 967 311