UK adults still lack basic skills

An estimated 13.5 million adults in the UK become stressed if asked to do basic sums, according to new research from the country’s largest provider of basic skills training.

The survey by Learndirect found that people have to use basic maths skills up to 14 times a day, from working out cooking times to calculating foreign currency rates. But 27% of the 1,001 adults aged 16 to 65 in the survey said they lacked confidence in these skills.

The findings add weight to recent research indicating a continuing lack of basic skills in the UK, despite government efforts to tackle the issue – and employers have been quick to focus on the difficulties that this causes in the workplace.

In August, research by employers’ organisation the CBI in August suggested that over half of employers are dissatisfied with school-leavers’ basic literacy and numeracy skills – with 86% thinking that improving maths and English skills should be the government’s top priority.

But education unions were quick to highlight the progress made in raising standards over the past 10 years. “The CBI would do better to remind its members to invest more in training,” said Christine Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teachers’ union.