Some of the beneficiaries of a £2.3M project to help Cumbrians with numeracy gathered in Penrith on April 10th to celebrate the end of the Multiply Programme in the county.
Cumbria Adult Learning - a hosted service delivering learning for Westmorland and Furness Council and Cumberland Council – ran the 3-year programme funded by the UK Government which ended on the 31st March 2025. Tailored for adults over 19, it aims to improve adult numeracy skills, confidence with numbers and career prospects. It’s designed to help people looking to boost their career, support family learning, get new qualifications or better manage their finances.
Amongst those who have been supported since 2022 in Cumbria are care leavers supported with progressing to further education, adults and young people gaining numeracy skills to access work and Ukrainian refugees starting their own businesses, plus helping parents understand maths being taught to their children in school.
Glenn Binns has been attending weekly maths classes at Kendal Library. “In high school I never focused enough, I was always distracted. I'm progressing amazingly. When I'm going out shopping and stuff, I'm more aware of how much I'm spending and I'm saving a lot more.”
In addition, Cumbria Adult Learning has worked with employers and partners training provider System People in Carlisle. Gary Hughes from the city attended Multiply training there. "I feel a lot more confident with maths including fractions. Percentages, wages and maths in general. I intend to use the maths skills when I take up a new job in driving HGV."
Other employer partners for basic numeracy training have included Ace Joinery, The Plastic Bottle Company and The Holiday Inn group.
Jenna Strickland, the Deputy General Manager at the Holiday Inn Express in Barrow was so pleased with the training her staff received on Team Building and Problem Solving that she has booked a follow-up session for the management. “Staff retention has 100% improved. We lost quite a lot of people to different companies within Barrow, but now that the team know what we can offer them, they're asking us like, when's another training course? So any other businesses out there, you've got it on your doorstep. Use it!”
Keeven Smith, Guest Service Assistant at the Holiday Inn Express in Barrow was one of those who received the training. “I found it has helped us a lot with communicating better, talking with each other. We've all been taking responsibilities on little odd jobs that we can do ourselves.”
Multiply funding also enabled Cumbria Adult Learning to develop skills through partnerships with Cumbria Chamber of Commerce, Cumbria Tourism and Barrow Business Improvement District. A project with the Government’s Department for Work and Pensions has delivered state pension “MOT” sessions.
Ewan Scarlett from Lamplugh attended a pension class in Workington. “I thought it was good. The delivery of it, the relaxed, informal manner. I don't feel fearful about correcting some of the things that I've fallen short on or the things I have to do to get caught up and be ready, because time zips by.”
Whilst the 3 year Multiply project is now ended, Cumbria Adult Learning is now launching a new Multiply/ENGgage project, offering new free Maths and English training for anyone over the age of 18. This follows increased feedback that there remains a need in the community to continue offering innovative, bespoke provision outside the constraints of traditional classroom learning. As well as continued numeracy support there is an additional need to extend the programme to include literacy and language skills.
Multiply/ENGgage in Cumbria has been given further funding from the UK Government, and it will initially run until the end of February 2026.