Are your maths skills up to scratch?

Photo: Janki Amin

Janki Amin, Employer Relations & Partnerships Manager at GSM London summarizes, "Ever found yourself confounded by job applications that call for number crunching skills?"

You're certainly not alone, but new research and a recent understanding of UK skills culture indicates that boosting our mathematical abilities is something that should be concentrated upon. Research indicates that a significant number of us have been found to be taken aback by numbers.

Photo: iStock/Alphaspirit

In a rather shocking revelation likely to further galvanise pro-numeracy campaigns and those against gender inequality, it's been found that that one in five women would go out of their way to avoid a job that required them to use basic arithmetic skills. Adding further shock to the disclosure, when asked the same question, men replied at a rate of half of this total (11%).

The research, conducted on behalf of GSM London by YouGov, polled 2,000 UK adults and over 1,000 businesses to discover the extent of the country's apparent aversion to all things mathematical.

Over one in four (28%) of all unemployed persons were found to be put off by mathematical requirements in job adverts. Phrases such as 'good with numbers', 'must be numerate' and so on turned away many potential applicants, despite the fact that 12% of 18 to 24-year-olds admitted to exaggerating their maths skills when applying for positions.

Employers were found to desire staff with good numeracy skills though. Three-quarters of senior bosses polled (75%) confessed they would choose one candidate with a good handle on maths over another with a less developed understanding. Over half (57%) went further, saying that they would lean away from hiring candidates who had not achieved at least a grade C or higher in GCSE Maths.

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Source: TrainingZone