Research from Swinburne TAFE’s School of Social Sciences suggests people are using numeracy skills in the workplace but aren’t always aware of it. This has important implications for their personal development and for learning and training, according to the report.

“People don’t feel that what they’re doing is numeracy or maths. We might classify something as a numeracy task, but they see it as common sense,” co-author Jan Hagston said.

Hagston started to investigate what was happening in the workplace after noticing that trainers in industry were developing numeracy skills through vocational training, but were not always making it clear those were the skills being developed.

She felt it was important to address the issue. “I thought that we may be doing the students a disservice by not making them more aware of the fact they were developing numeracy.”

The background to the report also considered the theory that technological advances mean there are greater demands for numeracy skills.

To conduct the research, Hagston and another academic from RMIT spoke to industry representatives, such as unions and industry training boards, and spent time with staff at three different workplaces: an aged care facility, an automotive manufacturer, and a small sheet metal company.

“They were very different workers in different workplaces and training cultures. That’s where it came to life and we got a sense of what was happening”, Hagston said.

They found people were undertaking numeracy tasks, or tasks that included numeracy, but that they weren’t aware that’s what they were doing. The report also looks at the kind of skills that are incorporated within numeracy in the workplace.

Hagston gave the example that some aged care workers do a whole range of tasks that require numeracy skills. “They take blood pressure and they have to calculate how heavy people are to lift them and to use certain equipment. But they don’t necessarily see those things as numeracy.”

Hagston argues that it’s important people know that they’re learning or using numeracy skills.

“If they’re conscious of those skills, they can use them in other contexts. Also, if you are not aware of what you’re dong, you’re less likely to understand why you’re doing it and if something goes wrong you don’t have the underpinning knowledge to be able to problem solve,” she explained.

The research paper considers the implications for training. The report states that numeracy skills can be extended by being framed within other workplace training, and suggests teaching needs to come from people with adult numeracy expertise, as well as those with sound knowledge of the industry.

“We suggest that people who have training roles in the workplace develop their skills in teaching numeracy. They need to make people conscious of why they are doing things. There could also be a numeracy training expert as part of the team,”
Hagston said.

Further, the paper suggests a trend towards workers taking greater responsibilities may lead to the need for even more independent use of their numeracy skills than in the past.

The authors argue that in the long run, if workers are made aware of their knowledge, they may become more confident in using and transferring their skills, and may be more open to learning additional skills for those positions of responsibility.

The report has been released by The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), and can be found online.