Multiply for Essex Businesses
Let’s Do Business Group awarded £10,000 grant by Essex County Council to help promote Multiply math’s skills programmes to Essex Businesses.
The Multiply programme, a countywide campaign launched by Essex County Council, is part of the UK Government’s Levelling Up strategy, and aims to improve adult numeracy and create ‘Skills for Life’ for residents in the county – improving wellbeing, boosting career prospects, and managing finances.
Numeracy skills are important and provide people with confidence to manage their finances and take the next step in their career. Amplified by the cost of living crisis, support for transferable numeracy skills are needed more than ever, to help people budget effectively, improve their skills, help children with their homework, and secure more opportunities for employment and higher wages.
Let’s Do Business Group work with businesses of all sizes and age across the South East and East of England helping them to grow, access finance and upskill their staff through workshops and training.
With the cost of living crisis, including rises in interest rates and energy prices, many employees are experiencing undeniable levels of stress, which could be affecting their concentration levels at work with worries around the future and their finances filling their minds.
“Employers want to be able to help their staff, but many aren’t in the position to provide pay rises or additional benefits at this time. The Multiply scheme allows them to be able to assist their staff with their financial literacy, helping them to budget their finances, and gives them confidence in managing their financial position.”
Essex County Council secured £7.9m through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to provide 14,200 opportunities to take up the Multiply programme across the County up to March 2025.
The Multiply programme will be delivered through a range of skills providers. It will support Essex residents aged 19 and over, who don’t have a math’s GCSE at grade C or above, to achieve math’s qualifications up to NVQ2 (GCSE grade A*-C or 4-9) through free bite-sized and longer-term courses. Delivered across Essex both in-person and online, the Multiply programme will have start dates throughout the year, to fit in with people’s lives.
Multiply courses can support your employees to:
- Manage their money – bitesize sessions and longer maths courses to help people aged 19 and over with cost-of-living concerns.
- Help children with their schoolwork – learn about core skills and problems to help children at school.
- Access employment and progress at work – improving their CV’s and boosting their confidence in the workplace.
Benefits to Essex Employers are:
- Providing added value to your staff in a time where pay rises and benefits may be unattainable.
- Supporting their mental health by reducing stress over financial planning.
- Boost confidence in the workplace when dealing with money, payments, accounts and other numbers-based tasks.
- Avoid mistakes which could impact on customer service and reputation.
- Help your business to grow by boosting productivity, increasing profits and improving morale and retention.