What is Multiply?
Multiply is a new nationwide government-funded programme to help you improve your numeracy skills, build your confidence and possibly gain a qualification.
With the current situation of the cost of living, it is the best time now to improve your own skills in working with numbers. Good numeracy skills can also help open a variety of different job opportunities for you. All of our courses will be suitable for beginners and you will be able to learn at your own pace.
What type of courses will you be delivering?
We will be delivering a variety of courses, including short courses and day sessions. We have the following courses that you can join:
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Money made easy
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Fun with maths
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Budgeting
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Live well for less
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Easy cooking skills
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Family and maths
What are the entry requirements?
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You must be aged 19+
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Reside or work in Blackburn with Darwen
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Have the right to live and work in the UK
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Not have a GCSE in grade C/4 or above
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If you would like to join our qualification based courses, you will be asked to come in for an initial assessment to see what level you are currently at.
What are the fees?
All our courses offered through Multiply are free of charge.
Where can I learn?
You can choose to learn at a range of venues across the Borough, including our neighbourhood learning centres at Bank Top NLC and Audley NLC.
What should I do next?
If you would like further information, please call 01254 507720 or 01254 581175.
Email: multiply@blackburn.gov.uk
Our partners
We work very closely with our partners who also delivery Multiply.
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Al Hayat
Al Hayat is an established centre providing accredited ESOL classes and tuition from our centre in the Whalley Range area of Blackburn. Our professional and experienced tutors offer flexible courses including an accredited beginners course Pre/Entry .
Al Hayat is recognised by the UKBA and approved by the British Council. We have built strong community partnerships and aim to keep courses relevant to learners and responsive to the needs of the community, promoting community cohesion. We also offer a preparation course for the ‘Life in the UK’ test.
Contact details
01254 433736
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Blackburn College
Blackburn College will deliver the Multiply project to local employers, offering their employees the opportunity to further develop skills in numeracy. This can include Excel training, craft and budgeting sessions to support individuals to transition onto further maths learning where required.
The course will be offered according to business need and shift patterns and can include evenings on the employer’s premises.
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Get Set Academy
Get SET Academy support both employed and unemployed individuals with developing essential skills to succeed at any age. Particularly with Multiply, we aim to provide a mixture of life skills, such as household budgeting and employability skills using IT systems to develop numeracy skills for individuals. We also provide formal qualifications, including maths Entry Level 1 up to a Level 2, to enable individuals to progress within employment, complete further education and therefore improve their quality of life.
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IMO
IMO’s Multiply project aims to support women and men from ethnic minority communities to gain basic maths skills to help with everyday activities, including using measurements for sewing and cooking, budgeting to save money and supporting children with homework. This will boost self-confidence, empower them to make their own decisions and develop maths skills to enable them to progress to the next level of learning and possibly into employment.
Each course will be 12 weeks long and be split into 3 different topics, each done over 4 weeks through different activities embedded with maths. The topics will include the following:
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Cooking with maths
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Sewing with maths
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Employability/ICT with maths
IMO will deliver needs based support and take feedback from participants on what they want to learn.
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Positive Smiles
Positive Smiles seeks to inspire, support, and empower the community by providing community-based interventions to build social, emotional, and mental well-being. Numeracy plans an important part of these interventions; through multiply, we are able to provide numeracy education, with wraparound support surrounding our core values. We further provide accredited training and qualifications to help individuals secure employment or further training. Our aim is to increase individual’s mental well-being whilst simultaneously enhancing their standard of living though educational support.
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Spring North
Spring North, work with smaller organisations to deliver different types of projects supporting the most vulnerable children, young people and families in the community. We work with smaller partner organisations and. are commissioned by Spring North to provide a range of different learning options for adults.
We want to help people improve their ability to understand and use maths in daily life, home, and work. Whether that be improving household finances, helping children with homework, making more sense of the facts in the media, or improving numeracy skills specific to a line of work. To achieve that, Multiply will offer a range of options such as free personal tutoring, digital training and flexible courses that fit around people’s lives and are tailored to specific needs, circumstances, sectors and industries.
We know this really matters. People who improve their numeracy skills are more likely to be in employment, have higher wages, and better wellbeing. Gaining a maths qualification at Level 2 or equivalent also unlocks the door to progress to higher levels of free training to secure a skilled job in our economy. Improved numeracy also matters to businesses right across the country – small and big. Businesses that develop their employees’ numeracy skills can boost productivity, increase profits, and improve employee retention.
Through Multiply, we want to see these local areas invest in meaningful participation that boosts people’s ability to use maths in their daily life, at home and work – and enable adults to achieve formal qualifications that can open doors for them (such as into a job, progression in a job, or progression to further study).