Multiply opens doors for learners

Written by Neil Saddington, Multiply Lead, City of Edinburgh Council

The Multiply strand of funding is designed by UK Government to transform the lives of adults' across the UK by improving their functional numeracy skills through free personal tutoring, digital training, and flexible courses. In Edinburgh, the Multiply funding is managed by the Wider Achievement and Lifelong Learning team with the City of Edinburgh Council.

Numbers are a big part of all our lives from everyday life to work tasks. Not everyone is confident with numbers, so we are offering free numeracy skills courses and support to help improve people’s skills and confidence with numbers.  Improving numeracy can help with managing bills and money, supporting children with homework and improve your job opportunities.

The Multiply programme in Edinburgh includes internally-led provision including courses such as Maths on Toast, Pottery by Numbers, Nutrition and Numbers, Cooking by Numbers, ESOL and Numbers courses, ESOL Numbers and Crocheting, SQA courses and Driving Test Theory courses.  The coming months will also see new programmes begin at Saughton Prison, in partnership with Fife College, as well as work with the traveller community in Craigmillar.

Additionally external partners have been running a wide range of courses. These include Level 5 SQA Numeracy courses run by Edinburgh College across the various campuses and Workers' Educational Association (WEA) courses specialising in personal budgeting and finance courses, maths anxiety, living well with dyslexia, and green issues.  Various community-based organisations are being supported to embed numeracy into their existing work. These include Access to Industry, Fresh Start and Space at the Broomhouse Hub.

The Multiply programme has built great momentum over recent months.  We were delighted that the Pottery by Numbers group won a Scottish Adult Learning Partnership Award as part of Adult Learners Week in May.  The group were invited to a prestigious awards ceremony dinner at the Pavilion in the Scottish Highland Exhibition Centre.

As you can see from the case study below, learners are really beginning to benefit from the project.  Multiply courses are promoted as relevant to local communities, internal staff, third-sector partners, and families engaging in the City of Edinburgh Council’s Discover project.  Multiply is for people 19+ living or working in Edinburgh and for 16+ who are not in education, employment, or training. It is for those who do not have a Level 5 SQA qualification, or above, in maths or numeracy.

You can connect with us via the Multiply web page here https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/multiplycourses.

 Please note that the learner’s name have been changed to protect their privacy. 

 Sarah’s story

Sarah is a 42-year-old social work assistant who went to school in South Africa.  She had a very negative experience of maths at school and was told by one teacher that she was “stupid and would never get anywhere with it”.  This experience left Sarah extremely anxious about further study, particularly in relation to maths and this has resulted in not feeling confident enough in her abilities to follow her dream of becoming a fully qualified social worker.

In late February 2024, Sarah saw an advert about the City of Edinburgh Council’s free Multiply numeracy courses on one of the Council’s Newsbeat emails.  After talking through her anxiety with the team, she signed up for the Level 5 Numeracy SQA at Edinburgh College and an online Maths Anxiety course run by the Workers Educational Association.

With the support of the Multiply team and the course tutors, Sarah successfully completed SQA Level 5 Numeracy along with developing lots of strategies to cope with her fear of maths.  Sarah said: “These courses have been life-changing for me.  They have been incredibly helpful in decreasing my Maths anxiety and helping me understand how I was using maths. The teaching was excellent and having someone not judge me on my age and appreciate my anxieties and style of learning was a complete change for me”

 “I have now been accepted on a SWAP (Scottish Wider Access Programme) course which includes more Maths and this course will enable me to go on and fulfil my dream of becoming a professional fully qualified Social Worker.  Thanks to Multiply, I feel ready for the challenge.”