Low number confidence linked to negative career impacts

New research from National Numeracy finds that lower maths attainment and number confidence are linked to negative career impacts on earnings, career choices and progression. The research also found that these issues disproportionately affect women, younger people and the unemployed.

The report presents the findings of research commissioned by National Numeracy and carried out by Research Partners between July and October 2022. Focussing on users of the National Numeracy Challenge, 1,025 users were surveyed and 24 in-depth interviews with users were conducted.

You can read the full report here.

Key Findings

• Negative school experiences of maths is linked to lower number confidence and lower maths attainment.
• Lower attainment and number confidence are also linked to a greater negative career impact (earnings, career choices and progression).
• These issues disproportionately affect women, younger people and the unemployed.
• Confidence is crucial to numeracy improvement, particularly among those who struggle the most with numbers.
• Jobs and careers are a major motivator for people wanting to improve their numeracy skills.
• Overcoming a lack of number confidence and understanding what contributes to low confidence levels is therefore crucial in raising numeracy standards and career outcomes across the UK.
• The UK’s numeracy levels are significantly below the average for developed countries and poor numeracy costs the UK economy around £25 billion a year.

Recommendations

• Number confidence is an essential driver of social mobility. Widespread acknowledgement and improvement are required in the ‘whole life’ learning journey from the early years and primary education, right into adulthood. The confidence to understand and work with numbers, allied with the practical use of numbers in everyday day life, should form a central pillar of mathematical learning in the UK.

• Women typically have lower levels of number confidence than men, which raises a high barrier to opportunities, career choices and earnings. Women and girls need to feel inspired and included in numeracy at every stage of the lifelong learning journey. Open acknowledgement and increased awareness of the gender barriers and culture around maths should be supported by an expanded evidence base of what would make maths work for women and girls. Government should ensure this evidence is taken into account in future education plans for both children and adults.

• Lower maths attainment and number confidence is holding UK PLC back; it is linked to greater negative career impact across earnings, career choices and progression, and costs the economy up to £25 billion a year. To build the skills necessary for a resilient and adaptable workforce and to remain competitive within a changing economy, Government and business should embed the National Numeracy Challenge, and other engagement and confidence building resources, into adult education, employment and skills-building programmes. This would help to reach hundreds of thousands more people with a proven, cost-effective method of improving numeracy.