Numeracy-Meets: Supporting the Teaching of Numeracy to Vulnerable Adult Groups

A key commitment of the Adult Literacy for Life Strategy (2021) is to reduce the number of adults in Ireland with unmet numeracy needs from 25% to 12%. One of the main challenges in achieving this is the varied provision of adult numeracy education. Many numeracy practitioners are either employed part time or are volunteers with few opportunities for professional development and networking with their peers. This paper details the design, implementation, and evaluation of a professional development model that aimed to support adult practitioners’ in developing their learners’ numeracy skills. This was done through the development of a new series of Numeracy-Meets — organised, informal meetings for practitioners to share good practice and personal insights into teaching adult numeracy. This new series of Numeracy-Meets was implemented between September and December 2023 and focused specifically in supporting practitioners who teach numeracy to vulnerable adult groups.