The House of Lords’ Numeracy for Life Committee has published its report, Making it Count, based partly on evidence provided by Baker Dearing’s founder and Life President Lord Baker and CEO Kate Ambrosi in June.

The report reads: “Technical and vocational education can provide a powerful vehicle for teaching numerical skills. Lord Baker and Kate Ambrosi from the University Technical Colleges (UTCs) described how mathematical knowledge becomes more meaningful when pupils apply it to engineering, health or digital technologies. One of the strengths of high-quality technical education is in demonstrating that numeracy skills underpin a wide range of occupations and everyday activities.”

Baker Dearing firmly believes that placing the learning of core academic skills such as numeracy in workplace contexts can help engage and educate students.

The report also cites a piece Kate contributed to for Tes as evidence for its point: “Sector leaders have cautioned that any such expansion will depend on suitably qualified staff, specialist facilities and sustainable funding arrangements”.

Kate wrote separately on how contextualisation can support numeracy and tackle youth unemployment for Comment Central in June.

Thank you to the committee for taking and using our evidence. We hope that it can improve the provision of numeracy skills in education and support more young people to positive destinations.