“Mum, help me with my homework”. As a parent you are meant to know all the answers right? While there will come a time when your children realise you don’t actually know everything, you don’t want the realisation to come when they are doing their maths homework. If they are being asked to do it by the school it must be something an adult can do. But what if it’s not? What if when you were at school the figures and equations didn’t make any sense to you? If you are an Essex resident aged 19 or over then there is free help available.

Get help to make numbers and money make sense to you

When do you ever need to know the value of pi in real life anyway?

Maths is one of those subjects at school which you had no choice about taking. While there are great teachers who really make the numbers come alive and have meaning, sadly the teaching styles and syllabus doesn’t work for everybody. Yet after you leave school you really do benefit from a good understanding of maths. Maybe not the Pythagorean theorem unless you are a carpenter or trying to help with your children’s homework, but a better understanding of maths can save you money, make you more confident and help you at work too. 

• Would you like to be more confident working out if offers in supermarkets are good value? 
• Or maybe you want to know how to budget better so your bank account isn’t empty a week before payday. 
• Maybe you are fairly confident with maths, but don’t have a qualification to prove your skills to potential employers. 

Luckily if you are an Essex resident you can improve your maths skills for free. Don’t worry the lessons won’t be reminiscent of those classes at school which made no sense. The sessions are designed to be easily accessible, fun and full of real life examples. Leaving you more confident and maybe even financially better off. 

There are 3 different types of courses available: 

• Manage your money 
• Help children with their schoolwork
• Access employment and boost confidence at work

The courses are held at a number of locations throughout Essex so there should be one near you. 

Different providers are offering different courses so it’s worth checking out what interests you at a convenient location. They range from 1 hour sessions to help with basic maths skills to longer term courses. Many of the topics are really practical covering useful skills like debt and money management and even cooking meals for your family on a budget. Check out Multiply in Essex to find out more. 

About Multiply in Essex

Multiply is a county wide campaign by Essex County Council for adults in Essex aged 19 and over to increase their maths and numeracy skills. Anyone is eligible if they don't currently have a maths GCSE grade C or above. The courses are free and some even come with a qualification up to NVQ2 (equivalent to a GCSE grade 4 to 9 , or A* to C if you went to school as long ago as I did).

The council was awarded a grant from the Department for Education to deliver the Multiply programme over the next 3 years (until March 2025). A recent study by the DfE ranked Essex 114 out of 151 local authorities in England for maths skills. That means that as a county our maths skills are worse than most of the country and lots of us could benefit from the free courses on on offer.

Courses available include short bite-sized sessions through to longer term courses held at further education colleges, adult community learning, libraries and other community venues. 

If you have ever wished that you didn’t find maths so hard then it really is a good time to change that. Check out these free maths courses now.