From 2 November, a week dedicated to helping children and adults feel good about numbers kicks off, with videos, interviews, free resources and activities including:
- Inspiring real-life stories from women working in financial services at TP ICAP and other workplaces
- Santander ambassador Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill and Bobby Seagull, National Numeracy ambassador, with Santander helping parents support their children by discussing how she has used numbers to feel more confident in her career
- Bobby Seagull with Experian sharing his top tips for managing money
- Helping us feel confident about understanding numbers in the news with KMPG
- Free activities for children
- Free guides for adults about overcoming low number confidence
Many people struggle to build confidence with numbers – it can make people more vulnerable to unemployment, debt, fraud and impacts mental health and opportunities - all exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis.
Low number confidence and maths anxiety affects millions of people in the UK and acts as an emotional barrier to engagement and progress in understanding and working with numbers. But it can be overcome.
Gaining number confidence is the first step to gaining the number skills that help in everyday life, for getting into work, managing money, or helping children with homework. It can also make us feel more confident about ourselves and give our self-esteem a bit of a boost.
And for businesses, encouraging number confidence can unlock potential in the workplaces, helping to boost workforce resilience, and in empowering women in particular to consider careers in industries they may have previously ruled out, such as financial services at TP ICAP.
Number Confidence Week will encourage people to join the 300,000 others who have already started improving their numeracy with the free online tool, the National Numeracy Challenge.
Santander ambassador Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill explained:
“Confidence in numbers is close to my heart especially now I am a mother. Numbers aren’t scary if you use them in a fun way. I’ve always felt comfortable with numbers as I had to get to grips with them within the context of athletics, the heptathlon and the Olympics, so they became much less daunting. Off the back of visiting my old school last year with Santander’s Numbers Game programme, I’m really excited to be supporting Number Confidence Week alongside Santander and their official charity National Numeracy.”
Sam Sims, Chief Executive of National Numeracy said:
“Low number confidence affects millions of people and is a hidden barrier to getting on in life, stopping people fulfilling their potential. But it can be overcome. Whether it’s to help in the workplace, managing your finances or helping children catch up with the curriculum, Number Confidence Week is about giving people a boost and developing positive attitudes to numbers.”
Nicolas Breteau, Group Chief Executive of TP ICAP said:
“Low number confidence is limiting the talent pipeline. For example, a disproportionate number of young women are ruling themselves out of a potentially fulfilling career in financial services because they believe they’re not good enough with numbers. As the founding partner of Number Confidence Week, TP ICAP wants to change that; we want to give young people from any background the skills and the ambition to go further, and in doing so create the modern, diverse and rich talent pool a successful UK financial services sector needs.”
James Jones, Head of Consumer Affairs, Experian said:
“Through Experian’s global Covid-19 financial health support programme we are determined to help empower the most heavily impacted and vulnerable consumers in society. We are therefore delighted to be supporting Number Confidence Week because helping people improve their number skills and confidence can have a very real impact on everyday money management.”
Number Confidence Week is supported by founding partner TP ICAP and lead partners Experian, KPMG and Santander.
Media contact
For images, video clips or interview requests: julia@nationalnumeracy.org.uk
