On the 17th May, we’re celebrating National Numeracy Day, so what better reason to catch up with Simon Goodier, Head of School for Skills, Employability and Wellbeing at City Lit, to learn more about the importance of maths education for adults.
Maths and me
Q: Why City Lit?
A: I am passionate about all aspects of adult education and believe that the City Lit values encapsulate all that makes for a great student experience – being ambitious, open-hearted, and imaginative.
Q: Did you enjoy maths at school?
A: Not especially. Like many, I struggled at times to see how maths could be applied to everyday life. However, when I started revising seriously for my GCSEs, I became a secret convert (to some extent anyway)!
Q: Do you think it is more difficult to learn maths as an adult?
A: I think that adults have more commitments and demands on their time, which certainly makes learning more challenging, but I don’t believe there’s anything intrinsically more difficult about it. Adults are equally as capable of learning mathematical concepts as younger learners and may be at an advantage in that they bring real-world contexts where maths may be required.
Q: What are the benefits of learning maths as an adult?
Life experience enables adults to see where maths is needed in everyday life – and where the gaps in learning need to be filled.
Q: What transferrable skills can you develop by learning maths
A: There are many skills that maths helps develop, such as the ability to pay attention to detail, constructing logical arguments, following complex reasoning and overall clarity of thought.
Q: What advice would you give to someone thinking of joining a maths course?
A: Perhaps one of the biggest barriers to joining a maths class is self-doubt. Too many people feel anxious about maths (myself included at times) and lack the confidence in themselves to make progress. Our maths courses really help students overcome these fears and understand that with practice they can achieve their goals. My advice would be to jump in and join a class – you won’t be alone!
The Big Number Natter
Q: What one word describes how you feel about maths? Why?
A: Excited – because with our maths team there are so many new ideas and projects for new and innovative courses being planned for at the moment. I think this is a real opportunity to give students the skills and confidence they need to improve their employment and life skills.
Q: Around half of UK adults have the numeracy levels expected of a primary school child. Does this surprise you?
A: Whilst this is a statistic I am familiar with, it never fails to surprise me when I see it in writing. This is why free courses with Multiply (the new government-funded programme to help adults improve their numeracy skills) are so important.
Q: Can you name some of the ways you use maths in everyday life?
A: Well, there are the obvious scenarios such as shopping (e.g. calculating costs) and cooking (e.g. measurements), but also less obvious contexts such as understanding and processing data when reading a news article. The list could go on, but one thing is for sure, the more we think about it, the more we realise that maths is in every aspect of our lives.
Q: Do you use maths at work? Can you give examples?
A: Yes, I frequently use maths at work. For example, I often need to apply skills in data analysis when working with student achievement data. In other contexts, I might need to ‘read’ financial data to understand where we are in relation to key targets. Understanding graphs is important too for a visual representation of data. Again, the list could continue – and shows just how important maths skills really are.
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We hope you found this City Lit National Numeracy Day Q&A with Simon Goodier informative and inspiring.
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