Multiply was a government funded scheme to improve adult numeracy skills. It aimed to boost people’s ability to use maths in their daily life, both at home and work. The Leeds City Council Multiply scheme was managed by the Employment and Skills service. 100% Digital Leeds worked with Employment and Skills and third sector partners to use Multiply to support communities hit hardest by the cost-of-living crisis.
Over three funding rounds, 19 of 100% Digital Leeds’s third sector delivery partners received funding to support almost 700 learners to improve their financial resilience by increasing their maths skills and their digital inclusion. Each learner was gifted a digital device and connectivity.
Digital inclusion and financial resilience
The aims of Multiply included engaging people without qualifications who would not be willing or able to learn numeracy skills in a more formal setting, and helping people to be better equipped to manage their own money. 100% Digital Leeds worked with Employment and Skills to award grants to trusted third sector delivery partners who are working with communities more likely to be digitally excluded and experiencing financial hardship.
The third sector organisations identified for this partnership offer person-centred support and maintain trusted relationships with their clients. The people they support often lack the confidence to access formal education due to barriers such as mental health needs, immigration status, or English as an additional language, meaning a traditional classroom setting is less accessible to them.
The organisations tailored their courses in different ways to make them accessible, relevant, and enjoyable to their learners. In addition, each learner was given a digital device with connectivity and support to develop the digital skills and confidence they need to make best use of digital tools and services to manage their money.
Those supported included people on low incomes, people with learning disabilities, people with mental health needs, refugees and asylum seekers, and older people.
The organisations that delivered Multiply are:
Course content covered numeracy skills for improved financial resilience, such as household budgeting, price comparisons, and online shopping and selling. Each organisation used some of their funding to purchase and gift to each learner a new digital device such as a smart phone, tablet, or smart speaker, and additional connectivity if required. Learners were supported to develop the digital skills and confidence they need to make best use of their new digital device to save and manage their money.
“The fact the learning was branded as household budgeting and not maths attracted people to do it. Having some time to look at price comparison sites and energy comparison sites was brilliant. There’s so much information that people can get, but they don’t know it’s there.”
Keith Aspden, Lifelong Learning Co-ordinator, Groundwork Yorkshire.
The Multiply sessions also increased people’s awareness of how much money can be saved by shopping online, with research showing that people purchasing online save around 25% on average per transaction. Digital exclusion puts people at a strong disadvantage whilst looking for work, training or education, and managing benefits and finances. Combining essential numeracy skills with digital skills to improve people’s financial resilience has been valuable for the organisations supporting people living in poverty or on low incomes.
“It’s about positioning maths in a practical way to have an impact on people’s lives, because that’s where things can go wrong. Some people don’t understand even the basics of saving or rising costs.”
Ann Wilson, Manager, SLATE Leeds.
Tailored support for communities
Damasq is an organisation that works to support refugees, asylum seekers, other migrants and minority communities through education, enterprise, and employment support.
Damasq found that some of the women in their group didn’t have responsibility over family finances. During the Multiply course they learned about online banking and online shopping but needed further support to gain a proper understanding of how to use these tools to increase their independence. Each participant at Damasq received a tablet with a SIM card with data. Participants reported using the tablets to help their children complete homework and using WhatsApp to contact family and friends.
After the session one participant used ChatGPT on their new tablet to find a much cheaper flight to Syria by going via Istanbul and adding luggage separately. Damasq plan to offer further sessions on online banking and the use of AI to support the refugee communities of Leeds.
“I was able to visit one of Damasq’s sessions. It was delivered by one of Damasq’s members, a lady who works in user interface design and user experience. It was clear that having the class delivered by a peer put Damasq’s learners at ease. It also meant the session could be delivered in Arabic. Delivering the session in the first language of Damasq’s members removed any potential language barriers, making the session more engaging and easier for people to understand. The session covered the basics of internet shopping, a topic which appealed to the learners and was a great way to combine basic numeracy skills with digital skills. As an added bonus, the lady leading the session told me that playing this role allowed her to build her confidence in presenting.”
Alice James Hopton, 100% Digital Leeds.
Practical skills for life
RETAS (Refugee Education Training Advice Service) supports asylum seekers and refugees who are waiting to access formal education or looking for employment. One of their Multiply learners had very limited digital skills and was on the waiting list for a course at Leeds City College. The Multiply course enabled him to learn the basics of using a computer.
“The course was very good because I started from scratch. Now I’ve learnt to do things on the computer like making files and saving documents and I know how to stay safe online. It will help me to find work, access courses, and study.”
Multiply learner at RETAS
RETAS has found that once asylum seekers get their refugee status, some people lack the ability to get online and apply for jobs or benefits. This means that more people end up in debt, putting pressure on RETAS’s advice service as well as other financial advice, emergency food, and housing services in the city.
“Multiply has really met a need in being able to equip people with practical skills, and help them be autonomous, so they can avoid getting into debt.”
Joanne Burgess, Learning Manager, RETAS.
Making learning accessible and enjoyable
Touchstone works in partnership with the Rehabilitation and Recovery Service. This is a specialist community-based rehabilitation service comprised of two mental health hospital wards within the Leeds and York Partnership Foundation Trust.
Learners on the ward initially struggled to create a shopping list for a meal plan on a budget. There were also learners with language barriers and anxieties around maths. On the Multiply sessions they were taught how to get the most out of their money whilst shopping online, such as shopping for non-branded items and using the ‘lowest to highest’ price settings on supermarket sites to find the cheapest deals. The money management course has given two people the confidence to go onto further learning in English and Maths and they have been given laptops to help them in their college work.
“The course consisted of a range of activities looking at shopping on a budget, household bills, and planning a ‘concert’ which included adding up the costs for the event and artists. For the whole course we used an online platform called Mentimeter. Each learner was able to log onto Mentimeter and follow the presentation and course content online. A participant’s first language was Spanish, and we were able to translate everything on Mentimeter and changed their settings on the device to make learning easier and inclusive.”
Jess Masterson, Pathway Inclusion Coordinator, Touchstone.
Supporting holistic outcomes
Cross Gates and District Good Neighbours Scheme CIO tailored their Multiply sessions to help the people using their food pantry customers. They worked with that group to increase their confidence and support them with budgeting. At the end of the course participants received a free tablet with connectivity, and they were signposted to the organisation’s digital support service to make the most of their new device. This ongoing support extended people’s learning, enabling people to use their device to connect with family and friends and do their shopping online.
“Many of the learners who attended Multiply sessions have continued to engage with our weekly coffee mornings and one-to-one digital drop-in sessions, which has helped further reinforce their learning and increase social inclusion. Some have even gone on to attend other digital skills courses, learning about the NHS App, staying safe online, and our ‘Fuel Poverty’ course. That shows their increased confidence and ongoing interest in improving their digital skills.”
Jo Horsfall, CEO, Cross Gates and District Good Neighbours Scheme CIO
The offer of a free digital device was a hook for people who lack the confidence and motivation to attend a more formal maths or digital skills course. This meant that people who would benefit from support but struggle to access it were encouraged to attend sessions. Some participants sought further support from the organisations upon finishing the course.
The Multiply sessions delivered by some of 100% Digital Leeds’s delivery partners have been successful in improving numeracy skills while bridging the digital divide for some of Leeds’s most underserved communities. All of the organisations took a person-centred approach to the sessions, tailoring the content to meet the needs of their communities, with ongoing support to use the digital equipment that each organisation gave to their learners on the Multiply sessions.
By combining practical maths skills with digital inclusion, Multiply has helped people to take greater control of their finances, access essential services online, and build their confidence in the digital world.