Navigating Life with Low Literacy and Numeracy

4. What can policy do to support adults with low foundational skills?

Abstract

This chapter outlines key policy levers to support adults with low foundational skills. Drawing on the evidence presented in previous chapters, it considers how different interventions align with the identified challenges and examines how policy responses can be adapted to different populations and national contexts.

In Brief

What can policy do to support adults with low foundational skills?

• The case for investing in improving foundational skills is strong and cross-national. PIAAC data shows that moving from low to medium proficiency can yield substantial gains in employment, wages, health, life satisfaction and civic participation.

• The Matthew effect is the central policy challenge: Adults with the lowest skills are also the least likely to engage in learning, due to limited motivation and awareness of their own skill gaps, past negative educational experiences, financial and time pressures, and insufficient employer support. Passive awareness campaigns of adult learning opportunities consistently fail to reach this group.

• Active outreach through trusted intermediaries, employers, trade unions, community organisations, healthcare and social services, is the most effective channel for identifying and engaging adults with low foundational skills.

• Programme design must match the deficit. Contextualised, sufficiently intensive provision consistently outperforms short, abstract instruction for this target group. Duration matters: adults with significant foundational deficits require sustained engagement. Flexible modular pathways and recognition of prior learning can enable adults to combine this significant time investment with other life demands.

• Enabling conditions determine who can access the provision. Financial barriers, both direct costs and foregone income, are among the most consistently cited obstacles to participation. Workplaces are key places for skill development. Most adults with low foundational skills are employed, but their jobs often involve low-complexity tasks that erode rather than develop skills. Free foundational skills training in the workplace, interwoven with job-specific tasks, can help overcome participation barriers.

• Prevention is the long-term strategy. High-quality early childhood education and care support foundational skill development, especially for children from disadvantaged families. Reducing intergenerational transmission of low foundational skills also requires ensuring that skills acquired in adulthood are reinforced through regular use in work and everyday life.

• The composition of the population of adults with low foundational skills varies fundamentally across countries, and four distinct profiles - near-threshold, deep-deficit, literacy gap, and numeracy gap - define both the starting points and the logic of intervention. In near-threshold countries, efficient short-course upskilling is the primary lever; in deep-deficit countries, provision must be intensive, differentiated, long-duration, and inseparable from a broader educational equity agenda. Where a literacy gap predominates, rapid language integration of newly arrived migrants is the central preventive priority, while numeracy gap countries point to systematic weaknesses in initial mathematics education. Country typology thus shapes prevention as much as remediation, requiring genuinely differentiated policy responses for each context.

Introduction

Low foundational skills are not inevitable, but neither are they easily reversed. This report aims to equip policymakers with evidence on where investments into increasing foundational skills can have an impact, who is most in need of support, and the conditions under which skills can be developed and sustained over time. The levers available to policymakers go beyond the design of effective learning opportunities; they extend to supporting workplaces, families and communities in reinforcing skills through everyday use. Equally important is recognising and addressing the barriers that hold people back, including limited awareness of skills and opportunities, low confidence, and competing life demands. This chapter sets out the key policy levers for reaching adults with low foundational skills more effectively, supporting their progression, and reducing the emergence of low foundational skills in future generations.

What is the rationale for policy intervention?

Evidence from PIAAC shows that low levels of foundational skills are associated with persistent and multidimensional disadvantages (see Chapter 1). Adults with low proficiency in literacy and numeracy are significantly less likely to participate in the labour market, and more likely to report poorer outcomes across a wide range of well-being and civic engagement indicators, including health, life satisfaction and social trust. These disadvantages often reinforce one another across the life course. The transition from low to medium proficiency represents a critical threshold. Crossing this threshold can yield substantial gains in economic and social outcomes. The persistence of low foundational skills and their far‑reaching consequences point to a clear role for public intervention. The following section outlines at least three key reasons why such an intervention is warranted (OECD, 2021[1]).

Reducing individual barriers to participation

Adults with low foundational skills often do not access learning opportunities, even when these exist – a phenomenon known as the Matthew principle (OECD, 2025[2]; Blossfeld, Kilpi-Jakonen and de Vilhena, 2020[3]; Boeren, 2009[4]). The reasons are well-documented: lack of appropriate provision, limited awareness of what is available, low motivation and confidence rooted in earlier negative experiences of education, lack of belief that training investment will pay off and the practical pressures of work, caring responsibilities and financial insecurity (Cross, 1992[5]; Pennacchia, Jones and Aldridge, 2018[6]; Roosmaa and Saar, 2016[7]). These are not simply personal failings; these are structural obstacles that suppress demand for learning among the very adults who stand to benefit most.

Policy has a role to play in reducing these barriers, whether through outreach and guidance, flexible delivery models that accommodate competing life demands, or financial support that makes participation feasible. Without a deliberate effort to lower the threshold for participation, provision will continue to reach those who are already investing in their skills.

Addressing under-provision by employers

Employers, too, tend to under-invest in the foundational skills of workers with low skills, though the extent of the underinvestment varies with labour market institutions (Acemoglu and Pischke, 1999[8]). This is partly a matter of information; many firms lack a clear sight of the skills gaps in their workforce and the training options available to address them (OECD, 2024[9]). It is also a matter of incentives: the returns to foundational skills training are often diffuse and long-term, while the investment costs are immediate and visible for employers. Smaller employers in particular face higher unit costs per worker and are less likely to have the internal capacity – a dedicated HR function, for instance – to organise effective training (OECD, 2021[1]; EC DG EMPL, CEPS and Panteia, 2020[10]).

Even where employers and individuals are willing to invest, collective action problems can get in the way. Employers may hesitate to train workers in transferable foundational skills if they fear those workers will be poached by competitors who have not shared the training cost (Becker, 1975[11]). Individuals may be reluctant to invest time and effort in learning if they are uncertain whether their newly acquired skills will be recognised or rewarded. Governments and social partners have a role in creating frameworks – sectoral training agreements, recognised qualifications, portable credentials – that align incentives and make it rational for employers and individuals alike to invest in skills development (OECD, 2021[1]; OECD, 2019[12]).

Unlocking wider economic and social returns

Beyond the direct benefits to individuals and employers, improving foundational skills generates wider returns that neither party fully captures in their own decision-making. These externalities provide a strong rationale for public investment. The economic case is well-established. Economies with large shares of low-proficiency adults risk becoming trapped in low-skill, low-productivity equilibria, in which weak skills discourage innovation and low innovation reduces the returns to skills investment. Breaking this cycle requires public action to internalise the benefits that markets will not price in on their own (Brunello and Wruck, 2020[13]; OECD, 2021[1]).

The social case is equally strong. Higher foundational skills are associated with better health outcomes, greater civic participation and higher levels of social trust – returns that extend well beyond the labour market. Equity is also a key concern: adults with low foundational skills are disproportionately from already disadvantaged societal groups. For example, they are likely to be inactive rather than simply unemployed, pointing to a group that conventional labour market policy often fails to reach. Lifting their skill levels requires co-ordinated action that combines skill-building with broader support for labour market re-entry.

How can adults with low foundational skills be reached?

Identifying adults with low foundational skills is only part of the challenge – the harder task is reaching and engaging them in adult learning opportunities. Effective engagement of this target group, therefore, requires both raising awareness and motivation and actively reaching out to where adults already are.

Building awareness and motivation

A frequently overlooked policy challenge is that many adults do not recognise their own skill gaps, underestimate the benefits of improving their skills, or do not see learning as relevant or achievable (Ambos, 2005[14]). This can be understood as a lack of "skills consciousness", referring to awareness of one's skills, their value, and the possibility of developing them. (Osiander and Stephan, 2018[15]; Pennacchia, Jones and Aldridge, 2018[6]).

Low skills consciousness is not randomly distributed: it is most acute among the very adults who stand to gain most from participation. PIAAC data show that a major barrier to participation is the perceived lack of need for further training, not simply reluctance or practical constraints, but a genuine absence of awareness that a skills gap exists or that addressing it is feasible (Windisch, 2015[16]; Grotlüschen, A. et al., 2016[17]; OECD, 2025[2]). Adults with low proficiency who work in low-complexity jobs, and whose daily environments make few literacy or numeracy demands, receive little feedback that their skills are insufficient. Without such feedback, the motivation to engage in learning is difficult to generate.

Crucially, passive approaches such as public awareness campaigns have proven largely ineffective for this target group (OECD, 2019[18]; OECD, 2019[12]). Effective outreach is active, targeted and relational. Strengthening skills consciousness requires embedding assessment and feedback into services adults already use – employment services, health settings, community organisations – and linking skills development to tangible outcomes such as improved wages, job performance, career progression and employment opportunities. The Cantonal Basic Skills programmes in Switzerland illustrate how awareness-raising can be structurally integrated into provision rather than treated as a preparatory activity conducted in isolation. Each cantonal programme is required to address not only learning delivery but also the identification and outreach of potential learners, working through employers, community networks and frontline services to surface adults whose skills needs may not be self-evident (Box 4.1).

Box 4.1. Programmes for Basic Skills in Switzerland

Decentralised delivery with national co-ordination to reach adults with low foundational skills

In Switzerland, support for adult literacy and numeracy is organised through a shared governance model between the Confederation and the cantons, under the Federal Act on Continuing Education and Training (WeBiG). The federal government provides financial support, while cantons are responsible for designing and implementing programmes tailored to their local context.

Each canton develops its own programme to support adults with low basic skills, with a strong emphasis on reaching underserved populations and adapting provision to their needs. Programmes typically combine flexible learning opportunities with targeted outreach strategies. Cantons regularly test and refine approaches to improve engagement, including through partnerships with employers, community organisations and public services.

The programme “Einfach besser! … am Arbeitsplatz” (“Better Basic Skills in the Workplace”) promotes short, workplace-oriented courses in literacy, numeracy and digital skills that are directly linked to job tasks. Training focuses on practical activities such as understanding instructions for machinery, reading and writing reports, performing basic calculations (e.g. discounts), and using digital tools required for everyday work. Courses are delivered in collaboration with employers and training providers and are funded by the Confederation.

A key feature of the approach is the combination of awareness-raising and provision. Efforts are made not only to offer learning opportunities, but also to increase awareness among the general population, potential learners and frontline actors who are in contact with adults with low foundational skills.

Policy insight

Decentralised systems can help reach adults with low foundational skills, particularly when combined with national funding and a clear legal framework. Integrating awareness-raising with tailored provision can help address both access barriers and low “skills consciousness” among target populations.

Source: Gollob and Barlocher (2025[19]); Swiss Federation of Adult Learning (2026[20])

Active outreach strategies

Awareness alone is rarely sufficient to drive participation. Converting a moment of recognition into actual engagement requires structured follow-up: practical tools such as skills assessments help surface unrecognised gaps and shift self-perceptions, but this insight is often short-lived without clear referrals to relevant training, employer-supported pathways, or community-based learning opportunities. Effective outreach therefore combines initial contact with immediate progression options.

Trusted intermediaries, such as employers, trade unions, community organisations, healthcare providers and employment services, are central to this. In Portugal, Qualifica Centres provide a nationwide, free‑of‑charge guidance offer combining diagnostic assessment and personalised guidance with direct pathways to formal training and recognition of prior learning, supporting tens of thousands of adults annually into education, training or certification (Cedefop, 2023[21]; OECD, 2021[22]). In Iceland, Lifelong Learning Centres prioritise adults with low foundational skills, including workers in SMEs, low-income groups and the long-term unemployed, through qualified counsellors and a geographically accessible network, delivering thousands of counselling sessions each year (OECD, 2021[22]).

Reaching adults through the workplace is one of the most promising channels, given that most adults with low foundational skills are in employment (Chapter 3), often in small private-sector companies with limited access to employer-sponsored training. Social partners can be trusted brokers in this process, as exemplified by the UK’s Unionlearn Programme (Box 4.3). In Germany, the ABAG Cologne project took a similar approach by engaging company supervisors to understand literacy and numeracy challenges workers face on the job, then co-designing flexible, learner-centred workshops accordingly (DIE, n.d.[23]).

Box 4.2. The Unionlearn programme in the United Kingdom

Using trusted workplace actors to reach adults with low foundational skills

In the United Kingdom, the Unionlearn programme demonstrates how social partners can play a central role in engaging adults with low foundational skills in learning. Led by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Unionlearn worked through a large network of Union Learning Representatives (ULRs) embedded within workplaces. The programme was underpinned by the Union Learning Fund (ULF), established by the government in 1998, which provided around £12 million annually to support union-led workplace learning activity. Government funding was withdrawn in April 2021, when the ULF was not renewed as part of a broader consolidation of skills investment. Since then, the TUC has continued to maintain the Unionlearn infrastructure – including ULR training, digital tools, and regional networks – without direct government funding.

ULRs are existing employees who receive dedicated training to support learning among their colleagues. They promote the value of learning, carry out skills assessments, help workers identify their training needs, and facilitate access to education and basic skills training. Crucially, ULRs operate as trusted peers, leveraging existing workplace relationships to engage individuals who may be reluctant to participate in formal training or who lack confidence in their own abilities.

The programme has been implemented at scale. To date, more than 40 000 ULRs have been trained, collectively supporting over 250 000 employees to access training each year.

Evaluations of the programme highlight strong outcomes at the individual level and show that the programme is especially effective for workers with low foundational skills, older workers, and learners from minority ethnic groups. Evidence from learner surveys indicates measurable improvements in foundational skills, with 26% of participants reporting gains in literacy and 13% in numeracy. Participation is also associated with increased confidence (reported by 68% of learners), greater enthusiasm for learning (74%), and improved ability to support and mentor others (58%). Around half of learners also report improvements in their quality of life and well-being (46%). Importantly, the programme has demonstrated high value for money, with an estimated return of GBP 12.30 for every pound invested (Dean et al., 2020[24]; Pennacchia, Jones and Aldridge, 2018[6]; Stuart et al., 2016[25]).

Policy insight

Workplace-based outreach that builds on trusted peer networks can be highly effective at engaging adults with low levels of literacy. Partnering with social actors who have established relationships with workers can help overcome barriers related to awareness, motivation and trust.

Source: Dean et al (2020[24]); Pennacchia, Jones and Aldridge, Stuart et al. (2018[6]); (2016[25]).

For adults outside the labour market, embedding outreach in community life and trusted social settings is essential. Mobile services are a well-established model: in Austria, a Mobile Learning Workshop brought ICT and communication training directly to educationally disadvantaged women in rural communities, working with local mayors and community networks to identify participants and gradually build capacity for self-directed learning (DIE, n.d.[23]). In Finland, the Helsinki Skills Centre's KYKY programme reaches stay-at-home parents with a migrant background through outreach in community spaces and employs counsellors from the communities themselves, recognising that personal contact and word of mouth are essential to engaging this group (OECD, 2020[26]).

Targeting adults in their role as parents represents a further approach with decades of evidence. Ireland delivers family literacy through Education and Training Boards as part of its core adult literacy provision, with high participation and strong retention among adults with low formal education. Evaluations consistently show gains in confidence, stronger engagement with schools, and progression into further learning. In Canada, family literacy is more strongly anchored in community development traditions; in the Nordic countries, it is typically targeted at adults facing multiple barriers, with intensive, individualised outreach and close integration with language training. (Hanemann, 2024[27])

Digital tools can extend outreach where face-to-face approaches are constrained by geography or cost. Germany's ABC+ project developed a free online platform to improve work-related reading and writing skills for workers with low foundational skills, accessible via smartphone as audio files, learning games and short videos, disseminated through active engagement with employers and adult education networks rather than passive promotion (DIE, n.d.[23]).

What are the features of successful policy design?

Effective interventions for adults with low foundational skills draw on a well-established evidence base. Across contexts, programmes are more successful when learning is grounded in real-life situations, when provision is sufficiently intensive and sustained, when progress is continuously assessed and adapted, and when teaching quality is high. These principles do not, however, translate into a single delivery model: effective responses vary in how literacy and numeracy are combined or sequenced, what existing skills can be leveraged, how pathways are organised, and what mechanisms sustain engagement over time.

Contextualised learning

Learning contextualised in situations adults recognise as relevant consistently improves engagement and retention. Contextualisation means embedding literacy and numeracy development within the learning contexts that adults find purposeful – specific job tasks, family responsibilities, financial decisions, civic participation – rather than treating skills as abstract prerequisites (Windisch, 2015[16]). Workplace-based contextualisation is particularly powerful: when literacy and numeracy are taught through actual tasks workers perform, the connection between learning and daily function is immediate, and delivery does not require participants to enter formal education settings. The Canadian Skills for Success Program (Box 4.3) and Norway's Skills Plus programme (Box 4.7) both illustrate how contextualised delivery can reach adults who would not participate in traditional adult education.

Box 4.3. Skills for Success in Canada

Supporting innovation and measurable outcomes in foundational skills development

In Canada, the Skills for Success (SFS) Program, formerly the Literacy and Essential Skills Program, provides a national framework for developing and delivering foundational and transferable skills. Managed by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), the programme funds projects that design and deliver training, develop assessment tools, and test innovative approaches to skills development, particularly for adults facing barriers in the labour market.

Rather than delivering training directly, the programme operates through partnerships with provinces and territories, employers, and training providers. Funded projects span a range of contexts, including workplace-based training, community programmes, and initiatives targeting underrepresented groups. A central feature of the programme is its focus on integrating foundational skills, such as numeracy, reading, and writing, with broader transferable skills, such as digital, problem solving, and adaptability, often required for employment and everyday life.

Evaluation evidence points to positive outcomes for participants. Learners report high levels of satisfaction with the training and indicate that participation helped them overcome barriers to learning and employment. Reported skills gains extend beyond technical competencies to include social and interpersonal skills (45% of participants), communication skills (40%), and broader people skills (36%). There is also evidence of labour market impacts. Among surveyed participants, 31% reported finding a new job within one year of completing training, while 16% reported securing a better job.

More broadly, the programme plays a system-level role by supporting experimentation, evaluation and knowledge sharing across projects. By funding pilot initiatives and scaling effective approaches, it contributes to growing evidence base on what works in reaching adults with low foundational skills.

Policy insight

Programmes that support partnerships across governments, employers and training providers can help deliver foundational skills training at scale while reaching adults facing barriers to employment. Evidence from Canada suggests that combining foundational skills with broader transferable skills, such as adaptability and communication, can support both employment outcomes and wider improvements in confidence and well-being.

Source: Government of Canada (2026[28]; 2023[29]).

Intensity, flexibility and stackable pathways

For adults with significant foundational deficits, programmes of limited duration rarely produce lasting gains. Durable improvements in literacy and numeracy require sustained engagement, yet around 42% of adult learning activities last a day or less, and a further 40% between one day and one week (OECD, 2025[2]). For adults seeking employment-relevant skills updates, short formats can be appropriate. Those with significant foundational deficits, risk producing minimal learning gains unless designed to accumulate into coherent, progressive learning journeys.

This is the central design tension: intensity is necessary for meaningful skill gains, but time, competing work and family demands, and financial pressures constrain participation. The solution lies in modular provision and stackable qualifications, where each completed module contributes to a recognised credential and provides a clear entry point to the next stage. Several countries have linked micro-credentials and non-formal short courses to national qualifications frameworks, making the cumulative value of sequential participation visible to both learners and employers (OECD, 2025[2]; OECD, 2023[30]). Ireland, for example, has integrated non-formal adult literacy and numeracy provision into its national qualifications framework.

Sequencing matters as much as format. The historically common approach of requiring adults to complete a foundation module before accessing vocational content defers the work-relevant learning that sustains motivation. Adults with foundational deficits learn most durably when skills development is contextualised within purposeful domains from the outset, not reserved as a reward for completing abstract prerequisite stages (Windisch, 2015[16]; OECD, 2019[12]).

Recognition of prior learning

Recognition of prior learning (RPL) allows adults to formally validate competences acquired outside formal education – in workplaces, through volunteering, in family roles or through independent learning – shortening the time required to reach qualification thresholds and providing entry points that bypass the need to repeat learning already achieved (OECD, 2023[31]). For adults in near-threshold countries with comparatively higher proficiency, RPL can be particularly powerful: existing capabilities can be acknowledged and instruction focused on specific remaining gaps.

RPL for foundational and general competences remains less developed than for professional and vocational credentials across most OECD countries. The adults who would benefit most – those without formal qualifications, migrants, long-term inactive adults – are also those least likely to be aware that RPL processes exist and least well served by current assessment frameworks (Meghnagi and Tuccio, 2022[32]). Extending RPL to foundational skills requires investment in assessors equipped to work with non-traditional evidence of competence, outreach to unfamiliar populations, and quality assurance frameworks that give RPL-based credentials genuine currency with employers and education providers.

Educator quality and professional development

Across all design elements, the quality of adult educators is the factor most consistently identified as the primary determinant of programme outcomes (Windisch, 2015[16]). Teaching adults with low foundational skills requires distinct competences: formative assessment that identifies where each participant is and adjusts instruction accordingly; understanding of adult motivation and the legacy of prior negative educational experiences; and the capacity to contextualise instruction within the domains that adult learners find meaningful. These competences are not consistently part of initial teacher training in most OECD countries, and professional development for adult literacy and numeracy educators is typically fragmented and inadequately resourced (Mallows, Toia and Troster, 2014[33])

Countries that have invested in structured professional frameworks for the adult education workforce show what is possible. Skills Norway coordinates teacher development for adult education in two concrete domains – language instruction for adult immigrants and foundational literacy and numeracy – working in partnership with universities that offer dedicated postgraduate programmes in adult learning and literacy (Eurydice/EACEA, 2023[34]). This provides a baseline of specialised competence, though coverage remains uneven and adult education principles are not yet a standard element of initial teacher training.

England's Education and Training Foundation (ETF) represents a more systematic approach, combining a national standards framework, a recognised qualification pathway, and structured continuing professional development into a coherent professional infrastructure for the further education and skills workforce (Box 4.4). The ETF model illustrates that sustained investment in educator quality requires not just training provision but institutional architecture. As learning contexts continue to evolve, continuous professional development represents a policy lever with disproportionate returns: investment in educator quality improves learning outcomes across the entire system, not only for individual educators or programmes.

Box 4.4. Building a professional infrastructure for the adult education workforce in England

The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) is the workforce development body for the Further Education and Skills sector in England, established in 2013 with an explicit mandate to drive professionalism and improve teaching and learning across the sector. Its remit covers the full adult education workforce – teachers, trainers, assessors and leaders – including those delivering English, mathematics and ESOL to adults with low foundational skills.

The ETF's approach rests on three interconnected elements. First, it sets and maintains a national framework of Professional Standards for teachers and trainers, most recently updated in 2022, which defines the knowledge, practice and professional behaviours expected across career stages and provides a shared reference point for initial training, appraisal and continuing development. Second, it manages two formal professional qualifications – Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) status and Advanced Teacher Status (ATS) – which provide recognised progression routes and give professional standing comparable to Qualified Teacher Status in schools. Third, it designs and delivers continuing professional development (CPD) across the sector's priority areas, with dedicated provision for English, mathematics and ESOL teachers.

The scale of operation is significant. In 2024–25, 615 practitioners were awarded QTLS and 16 achieved ATS; all recipients of ATS reported a positive impact on their professional practice. CPD programmes consistently report high engagement and self-reported improvements in practice, with participants across programmes reporting strengthened pedagogy and improved learner outcomes.

Policy insight

A distinctive feature of the ETF model is its integration of standards, qualification and development into a single professional ecosystem, rather than treating these as separate policy instruments. This integration addresses a structural weakness in many adult education systems: practitioners may access individual training opportunities without these contributing to a recognised professional identity or cumulative development pathway. National workforce development bodies can play a coordinating role that individual providers or local systems cannot easily replicate.

Source: Education and Training Foundation (ETF) (2022[35]; 2025[36]; 2025[37]),

What enabling conditions support learning success?

Programme design determines what is offered; the enabling environment determines who can access and sustain it. Employers, families, communities and the practical and financial conditions of adults' daily lives all shape whether participation is possible, regardless of the quality of provision available. Even the most well-designed programme will fail to reach those who most need it if the conditions for participation – financial, logistical, relational – are not addressed. Three enabling dimensions are particularly critical: financial incentives that reduce the cost of participation; workplace cultures and practices that support skill development; and family and community environments that reinforce skills through everyday use.

Financial incentives and the cost of participation

Cost remains one of the most significant structural barriers preventing adults with low foundational skills from engaging in learning. For adults on low incomes, both direct costs (course fees, materials) and indirect costs (foregone earnings during training, transport, childcare) can make participation economically irrational in the short term, even when the long-term returns are substantial. Around one in four adults across OECD countries reports barriers to participating in adult learning, with time and financial constraints consistently among the most frequently cited (OECD, 2025[2]; Grotlüschen, A. et al., 2016[17]).

Public financial incentives – individual learning accounts, training vouchers, targeted subsidies and income replacement during training leave – are the primary policy instruments for addressing these barriers. France's Compte Personnel de Formation (CPF) allows workers to accumulate training entitlements over their careers and redeem them for nationally recognised training, providing a portable instrument that supports autonomous learning choices (Perez and Vourc’h, 2020[38]). Training leave policies are receiving renewed attention across OECD countries, particularly for workers with low foundational skills; however, uptake among underrepresented groups remains uneven when income replacement rates are insufficient or employer support is weak (OECD, 2025[2]).

The design of financial incentives matters as much as their existence. Instruments structured around reimbursement after completion do not remove the upfront affordability barrier for those on very low incomes. For adults outside the labour market – a disproportionately large share of the most severely disadvantaged – neither employer co-financing nor training leave entitlements apply directly. Effective financial support combines direct cost coverage with income replacement during learning, supplemented by support for associated costs such as childcare and transport. Germany's approach illustrates this integrated logic (Box 4.5)

Box 4.5. Financial Incentives for Unemployed Adults with Low Foundational Skills in Germany

Germany provides a structured, rights-based system for supporting unemployed adults without a vocational qualification, combining full cost coverage for training with strong Public Employment Service (PES) steering through training vouchers (Bildungsgutschein). Low-qualified jobseekers are prioritised for qualification-oriented measures, typically following counselling with PES caseworkers who approve the training objective, duration and provider.

Support is not limited to full retraining but includes modular upskilling, partial qualifications and shorter courses. Foundational skills training (literacy, numeracy and digital skills) can also be funded, particularly where deficits prevent access to vocational training, allowing a stepwise progression from foundational skills to occupational qualifications.

Financial barriers are reduced through full coverage of course costs and related expenses such as transport and childcare, alongside continued payment of unemployment benefits during participation. Participants also receive a monthly training allowance of EUR 150 during eligible qualification-oriented training (up to approximately three years). Completion bonuses of EUR 1,000 for interim examinations and EUR 1,500 for final qualification exams are paid when training leads to recognised vocational certification – structured to reinforce completion rather than just enrolment, which is particularly relevant for low-qualified adults with higher dropout risk.

Policy insight

Germany's approach integrates foundational skills within a single entitlement-based training system rather than treating them separately. By combining sequenced pathways, full cost coverage, income replacement and explicit completion incentives, the system reduces financial barriers to participation for unemployed adults with low foundational skills at multiple stages of engagement.

Source: Arbeitsagentur (n.d.[39]).

Addressing life barriers to learning

Participation in learning is strongly shaped by adults' broader life circumstances. Financial pressure, caring responsibilities, health issues, housing instability and precarious work reduce both the time available, and the cognitive bandwidth needed to sustain participation. For adults facing multiple disadvantages, fragmented service landscapes can become a barrier in themselves. Evidence points to the value of integrated delivery models – often organised through case management or key-worker approaches – that combine learning guidance, mentoring and practical support into a single relationship, particularly for learners with negative prior experiences of formal institutions (OECD, 2021[40]; OECD, 2020[26]).

Digital and flexible delivery can reduce access barriers linked to time and geography, but only under specific conditions. Modular provision and blended learning can help accommodate work and family constraints; however, low literacy and numeracy, limited digital skills, and lack of devices or connectivity can exclude the very groups such delivery is intended to reach. Effective systems pair flexible formats with enabling measures: subsidised devices, public access infrastructure and simplified, low-literacy-friendly design. Germany's ABC+ platform illustrates this approach, offering workplace-relevant literacy support via mobile phone with audio and video formats tailored to workers with low foundational skills. Portugal's Qualifica programme offers a larger-scale example of how guidance, assessment and progression pathways can be integrated into a single system that reduces fragmentation and supports sustained re-engagement (Box 4.6).

Box 4.6. The Qualifica programme in Portugal

Integrating learning with social support to overcome life barriers

In Portugal, the Qualifica programme provides a large-scale example of how adult learning can be embedded within broader support systems to address barriers to participation. Launched in 2016, Qualifica aims to raise qualification levels and employability among adults, particularly those with low levels of education, by combining skills development with personalised guidance and links to employment and social services.

At the centre of the programme are more than 300 Qualifica Centres, which provide a nationwide, free-of-charge guidance offer targeted at less-qualified adults, unemployed individuals and those at risk of labour market detachment. These centres act as one-stop access points, combining information, diagnostic assessment and personalised guidance within a lifelong learning framework. Individuals are supported by dedicated counsellors who assess their skills, identify appropriate pathways, and provide ongoing guidance throughout participation.

A defining feature of Qualifica is the close integration of guidance with immediate progression opportunities. Adults are directed either into formal education and training or into processes for the recognition of prior learning (RPL), allowing them to build on existing competences. This dual approach, assessment combined with clear next steps, has supported large-scale engagement, with tens of thousands of adults guided each year into education, training or certification.

Qualifica is also embedded within a wider system of public services. Centres work closely with employment services, training providers and, in some cases, social support systems, helping to address practical barriers such as financial pressure or unstable employment that can otherwise disrupt participation. By reducing fragmentation and providing continuity of support, the programme is particularly effective in re-engaging adults with weak prior attachment to education.

Policy insight

Addressing life barriers to learning requires more than adapting course provision – it depends on integrating education and training within broader support systems. One-stop models that combine guidance, assessment, validation and progression pathways can reduce fragmentation, strengthen engagement, and enable sustained participation among adults facing multiple barriers.

Source: Cedefop (2023[21]).

Workplaces as engines of skill development

Workplaces represent a critical enabling environment for skill development, particularly for adults already in employment, the majority of whom have low foundational skills in most countries (Chapter 3). Yet jobs available to workers with low foundational skills are frequently characterised by narrow, repetitive task profiles that offer limited opportunities to practise or extend literacy and numeracy. Improving job design and promoting high-performance work practices (acknowledging that this might be challenging for some employers, especially SMEs), as well as incentivising employer investment in foundational skills training can substantially improve outcomes for workers who would not access formal provision independently.

Effective employer engagement requires more than encouraging firms to train. Employers, particularly smaller ones, may lack a clear picture of their workforce's foundational competence levels, face high unit training costs, and worry about investing in transferable skills if newly trained workers can use these skills to move to another employer, including a competitor. Sectoral training funds, co-financing mechanisms and workplace training programmes can address these market failures, though their design needs to be adapted to national regulatory contexts, including applicable state aid rules. Norway's Skills Plus (Kompetansepluss) programme illustrates one possible model, delivering literacy, numeracy and digital skills training directly within workplaces, free of charge to participants, co-organised with employers who identify training needs and facilitate participation during working hours (Box 4.7).

Beyond formal training, the way work is organised shapes skill development and maintenance. Jobs that involve autonomy, problem solving, task variety and the active use of literacy and numeracy maintain and develop skills through use; narrow, routinised jobs erode them. High-performance work practices, including team working, devolved decision-making and regular feedback, are associated with higher skill utilisation and stronger learning climates. Policy can promote these practices through employer recognition schemes, guidance to small employers, and integration of skills use into broader productivity and workforce development frameworks (OECD, 2021[1]; OECD, 2013[41]).

Box 4.7. Skills Plus in Norway

Embedding foundational skills development in the workplace

In Norway, the Skills Plus programme (Kompetansepluss) provides a long-standing example of how foundational skills development can be embedded directly in the workplace. Launched in 2006, the programme aims to support adults, particularly those with low levels of formal education, in developing basic literacy, numeracy and digital skills through training aligned with job tasks and workplace needs.

The programme is funded by the Norwegian government and delivered in partnership with employers and training providers. It provides grants to enterprises in both the private and public sectors to deliver tailored training that combines basic skills development with work-related learning activities. Employers play a central role in identifying skills needs and facilitating participation, while training is typically delivered during working hours and free of charge for participants.

Skills Plus has been implemented at scale over an extended period, with more than 100 000 employees having received training since its inception. Available evidence, largely based on programme monitoring and stakeholder reporting, suggests positive outcomes for both employees and employers. Participants report improved confidence in using skills at work and greater readiness to pursue further training or professional certification. Employers report better communication, fewer errors in job tasks, and higher levels of motivation among staff, alongside improvements in workplace processes such as understanding of instructions and routines. However, robust, independent evaluation evidence on learning outcomes and long-term impacts remains limited.

Policy insight

Embedding the development of foundational skills within the workplace can help overcome key barriers to participation among adults with low foundational skills. Tailoring provision to job tasks and delivering training during working hours increase relevance, reduce stigma, and support sustained engagement.

Source: Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (2026[42]); OECD (2025[2]); Nordic Network for Adult Learning (2019[43]).

Supporting skills in families and communities

Families and communities are the primary environments in which foundational skills are practised, maintained and transmitted across generations. Everyday activities - such as managing finances, using digital services, supporting children's schooling, and navigating health systems - create regular opportunities to apply literacy and numeracy, or to experience the practical costs of low proficiency. Strengthening the skill-reinforcing properties of these environments complements formal provision and extends its reach into settings where formal learning cannot easily penetrate.

Family literacy programmes are the most developed policy mechanism for this purpose. The evidence base consistently points to strong participation, high retention among adults with low formal education, and gains in confidence, school engagement and progression into further learning, even where short-term proficiency gains are modest (Hanemann, 2024[27]). Effective provision is local, flexible in format, and works simultaneously on parents' own foundational skills and their capacity to support children's learning. Ireland's family literacy offer – delivered through Education and Training Boards as part of core adult literacy provision – exemplifies a nationally integrated approach; Canada and the Nordic countries offer contrasting models anchored respectively in community development traditions and intensive, individually targeted integration with social services.

Libraries, community centres and other trusted public spaces serve as community learning hubs, providing access to digital infrastructure, informal learning opportunities and low-threshold literacy support (IFLA, 2021[44]). This is particularly significant for adults who would not enter a dedicated adult education setting. Integrating basic skills support into these settings, including digital literacy, reading and writing support, and information on further learning pathways, creates a non-stigmatising entry point that can reach adults beyond the range of more formal outreach. Australia's Literacy for Life campaign illustrates how community-embedded delivery, built around trusted local facilitators and cultural relevance, can reach populations with very low literacy who are consistently underserved by mainstream provision (Box 4.8)

Box 4.8. Literacy for Life Campaign in Australia

Reaching adults with low foundational skills through community-based delivery in marginalised communities

In Australia, the Literacy for Life Campaign provides a community-led approach to improving adult literacy among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations, where rates of low literacy are estimated to affect between 40% and 70% of adults, and up to 90% in some remote communities. The programme is supported through funding from government agencies and other partners.

A defining feature of the programme is its locally embedded delivery model. Rather than relying on formal education institutions, Literacy for Life is implemented through locally recruited and trained facilitators, with learning taking place in small, group-based sessions within community settings. This approach is designed to build trust, ensure cultural relevance, and reduce barriers related to stigma and prior negative experiences with formal education. Community leaders play a central role in outreach and delivery, helping to engage adults who are typically underrepresented in adult learning.

Available evidence indicates positive outcomes for participants. The programme has supported more than 500 adults nationwide to become functionally literate. Completion rates are reported at around 59%, which is higher than those typically observed in other mainstream adult literacy provision for Indigenous adults. Participants also report increased confidence, greater willingness to engage in further education and training, and stronger participation in community and civic life.

Policy insight

Community-led and culturally adapted delivery models can be highly effective in reaching adults who are disengaged from formal learning systems. Embedding programmes within local communities and leveraging trusted relationships can increase participation and improve outcomes.

Source: Literacy for Life Foundation (2026[45]); Testa and Mounter (2025[46]).

What roles does prevention play in addressing low foundational skills?

Improving foundational skills among adults is necessary but costly and difficult to sustain. The evidence consistently shows that meaningful proficiency gains require sustained engagement, and that gains are vulnerable to fade if not reinforced through regular skills use (Windisch, 2015[16]; Grotlüschen, A. et al., 2016[17]). Prevention – reducing the number of children who enter adulthood with low foundational skills and reducing the rate at which adults with adequate skills lose them through disuse – is therefore an indispensable complement to remediation. It operates on two distinct timescales: in the short term, sustaining skills among adults who already have adequate proficiency; in the long term, improving initial education so that fewer children leave compulsory schooling with foundational deficits.

Short-term prevention: maintaining skills through sustained use

For adults with adequate foundational skills, the primary prevention challenge is sustained engagement with literacy and numeracy over the life course. PIAAC data show that proficiency tends to decline with age in many countries, particularly among adults in low-complexity jobs (Grotlüschen, A. et al., 2016[17]; OECD, 2024[47]). Workplaces are the most important environment for maintenance: jobs that actively engage literacy and numeracy, such as reading technical documents, communicating in writing, and interpreting data ̶ help sustain skills in ways that routinised jobs do not. This connects prevention directly to the enabling environment discussion above: improving job design and promoting high-performance work practices are not only strategies for developing skills but for maintaining those already acquired (OECD, 2021[1]).

Beyond the workplace, digital environments, civic participation and family engagement with children's education all provide contexts in which foundational skills are used and reinforced. Public services designed with low-literacy users in mind, using plain language, visual navigation and accessible formats, reduce the risk that low-complexity environments accelerate skill erosion. Conversely, poorly designed automated tools that entirely substitute for reading, writing or calculation may accelerate rather than prevent skills decline among those with low proficiency.

Long-term prevention: strengthening initial education and early childhood investment

The most durable prevention strategy is improving the quality and equity of foundational learning in early childhood and compulsory schooling. High-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) is among the most cost-effective investments available to reduce foundational skills inequalities (OECD, 2021[48]; Heckmann and Masterov, 2007[49]). The benefits are largest for children from disadvantaged families – precisely those most at risk of low foundational skills in adulthood – and are sustained through primary schooling when early gains are reinforced rather than eroded.

Investment in ECEC alone is insufficient if primary and lower secondary education do not build on early gains. Research consistently identifies teacher subject knowledge, curriculum coherence, early identification of learning difficulties, and effective transition between levels as critical determinants of whether foundational skills are securely established before compulsory education ends (Hanushek and Woessmann, 2015[50]). The children most at risk of leaving school without functional literacy or numeracy are disproportionately from socio-economically disadvantaged households and under-resourced schools and communities (OECD, 2023[51]).

Key policy levers include: ensuring all students reach minimum literacy and numeracy standards before leaving compulsory schooling; replacing grade repetition with targeted in-class support (OECD, 2019[52]) investing in early identification of reading and numeracy difficulties; expanding access to high-quality ECEC for disadvantaged children; and strengthening second-chance pathways, re-entry programmes, flexible qualification routes and bridge programmes, for early school leavers.

Intergenerational transmission and (again) the role of family learning

A distinctive feature of foundational skills deficits is their tendency toward intergenerational transmission: children whose parents have low literacy and numeracy are at substantially elevated risk of entering adulthood with similar deficits. The pathway runs through multiple mechanisms – reduced exposure to rich language environments at home, lower engagement in reading and numeracy activities before school entry, less parental capacity to support homework and school engagement, and the concentration of children with low-educated parents in lower-resource schools and communities. PIAAC data confirm that parental education is among the strongest predictors of adult proficiency, even after controlling for an individual's own educational attainment (OECD, 2024[47]; Grotlüschen, A. et al., 2016[17])

Preventing intergenerational transmission requires interventions that work simultaneously on parents' own skills and on the home learning environment, which is precisely the logic of family literacy programmes discussed in the enabling environment section. It also requires systemic action: ensuring that early years provision actively reaches the families that stand to benefit most, that schools in disadvantaged communities receive resources proportionate to the challenge they face, and that the wider policy environment – housing, health, income support – addresses the family stress that mediates between poverty and poor foundational skills outcomes in children.

How does the nature of the challenge shape the policy response?

Countries with similar rates of adults with low foundational skills can face fundamentally different policy challenges depending on the relative proficiency of their population with low foundational skills, its heterogeneity, and the nature of the deficit, whether in literacy, numeracy or both. The four-profile typology developed in Chapter 2 captures these differences and provides the organising framework for what follows (Table 4.1). All four profiles share certain baseline conditions: adults with low foundational skills are less likely to participate in training, more likely to have limited labour market attachment, and more likely to face compounding disadvantages in health, housing and civic life (see Chapters 1 and 3). The policy challenge is therefore both general and specific. The levers described in this chapter - outreach and engagement, programme design, enabling conditions, and prevention - apply across all contexts, but their relative weight, sequencing and configuration must reflect the profile of each country's population with low foundational skills.

Table 4.1. Each country profile implies a different primary policy challenge

Key characteristics and principal policy challenge for each of the four country profiles, based on the typology developed in Chapter 2

Profile	Key characteristics	Scale of group	Primary policy challenge
Near-threshold, concentrated	High medians in both domains, narrow dispersion, adults close to Level 2	Wide range (13%-48%)	Enabling a well-defined group to progress towards medium skills; scale varies but target group is relatively homogeneous
Deep-deficit, dispersed	Low medians in both domains, wide dispersion, heterogeneous group	Wide range (15-61%)	Differentiating pathways across a heterogeneous population; reaching the severely disadvantaged tail
Literacy gap	Low literacy median; high numeracy median; struggling readers are dominant	Low to moderate (17-37%)	Language acquisition and literacy as the primary entry point; migrant-specific outreach and delivery
Numeracy gap	High literacy median; low numeracy median; wide dispersion; few struggling readers	Moderate (24-37%)	Addressing a domain-specific deficit in a population with literacy strengths; functional numeracy in context

Near-threshold countries

The defining feature of near-threshold countries is proximity to medium proficiency. Adults are close to the Level 1–2 boundary; in higher-prevalence countries - Czechia, Croatia, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania and Poland - a large share already processes text fluently, and the population with low foundational skills is comparatively homogeneous. This proximity is the central policy resource: meaningful gains are achievable with less intensive provision than in other profiles, and the return on employer investment in targeted upskilling is relatively near-term and legible.

The primary design opportunity is efficiency. Programmes pitched at the threshold, rather than at basic decoding, are more appropriate and less likely to generate dropout due to a sense of mismatch. RPL that acknowledges what learners already know, combined with modular, stackable pathways short enough to fit around employment, is the appropriate architecture. For the large, employed majority in higher-prevalence countries, employers and social partners are the most tractable outreach channels: the productivity case for engagement is concrete, and sectoral training funds and employer co-financing can help distribute costs. Financial barriers may be more manageable in this profile than in others, though adequate income replacement remains essential for lower-income participants.

In lower-prevalence near-threshold countries – for example, Canada and Sweden - the residual population with low foundational skills is smaller and more likely to include adults with migrant backgrounds. Outreach must be more targeted and culturally attuned, and the intermediary role of migration and integration services becomes more important. Greater intensity and individually tailored support are needed for this harder-to-reach subgroup.

Prevention in near-threshold countries is primarily a school equity challenge: ensuring that initial education reliably brings all children to functional competence, not just the majority. In higher-prevalence countries, this requires sustained attention to where children are being left behind, in which schools, regions and social groups, and whether early intervention reaches those most at risk. The adult skills challenge and the school equity challenge are directly connected, and policy co-ordination between education and skills ministries matters for long-run outcomes.

Deep-deficit countries

Deep-deficit countries face the most complex and resource-intensive challenge because disadvantage is both broad and deep: the population with low foundational skills is not only sizeable, but also highly heterogeneous in the level and nature of support required. The wide dispersion of proficiency within the population with low foundational skills means that no single programme or outreach strategy can serve the entire group. This is the central design requirement: rigorous initial skill profiling to identify where in the distribution each learner sits, and provision that spans from genuinely foundational instruction - basic decoding, number sense, oral language - through to near-threshold courses, with clear progression pathways connecting the tiers. Intensity requirements are substantially higher than in other profiles. Adults in the lower tail need sustained engagement over long periods, with content directly relevant to their lives as parents, workers and community members, intermediate recognition of progress, and mentoring relationships that provide continuity across necessarily long learning journeys.

Providing the appropriate enabling environment is equally demanding. The most severely disadvantaged adults are disproportionately outside formal employment, making the employer channel largely unavailable for those who need support most. Community-supported provision, delivered through health centres, family support programmes, libraries and social housing offices, is often the only realistic route to this group. Financial support must extend well beyond course fees to include income replacement, childcare, transport and, in some cases, co-ordinated housing and health interventions.

The challenge is most acute in countries where the population with low foundational skills is large and deeply disadvantaged, as in Chile, or where migrants constitute a substantial share of struggling readers, as in France and Germany. In countries where low foundational skills are less prevalent overall -– Finland and the Netherlands – a small but severely disadvantaged group remains. Here, intensive individual case management is likely to be more appropriate than scaled community programmes.

In high-prevalence deep-deficit countries, prevention amounts to a national educational equity agenda. The challenge of adults with low foundational skills is in part the cumulative outcome of decades of educational underinvestment, and addressing it requires sustained investment in high-quality early childhood education and care for disadvantaged children, and in the quality of primary education in under-resourced schools and communities. The compounding disadvantages that drive deep skill deficits begin in early childhood; prevention policy must therefore operate in parallel with remediation rather than being treated as a longer-term complement to it.

Literacy gap countries

In literacy gap countries - Austria, Latvia, Norway, Singapore and Switzerland - the profile of adults with literacy-specific deficits differs across contexts, but in several countries the presence of migrants and adults assessed in a non-native language is an important policy consideration. Outreach challenges may therefore be language-mediated in some contexts, while in others they may relate more strongly to institutional, educational or trust-related barriers.: Standard materials and referral pathways may be inaccessible or distrusted. Effective engagement may require information in multiple languages where relevant, outreach through community and diaspora networks, and strong co-ordination between migration, integration and adult learning services. A trust deficit can compound this: adults who have had negative encounters with institutions in countries of origin, or who have concerns about the consequences of disclosure, may be particularly resistant to formal referral pathways.

Programme design must centre on language acquisition and literacy but can draw on a comparative asset: adults in this profile typically have stronger numeracy. Framing literacy development in numerically familiar contexts - budgeting, measurement, data interpretation - provides a domain of confidence from which to approach the harder task of host-language literacy. Intensity is especially critical: high-intensity provision in the period immediately following arrival produces substantially better long-run outcomes than deferred or low-intensity alternatives. Employers play a critical but often overlooked enabling role - workplaces where the host language is actively used are among the most powerful literacy-development environments available - yet this resource is easily lost when migrants are concentrated in low-skill, low-communication roles.

Prevention in this profile has a distinctive demographic dimension. A significant share of the population with low foundational skills comprises migrants whose low assessment scores do not necessarily reflect generalised foundational deficits, but rather limited proficiency in the assessment language. The most relevant preventive lever is rapid and effective language integration: ensuring newly arrived migrants access language support before entrenchment in low-skill employment forecloses literacy practice, and that children of migrants receive adequate linguistic support in school. Immigrant integration programmes represent a major – and often underutilised - channel for foundational skills development; strengthening their contribution requires more explicit integration of literacy and numeracy objectives, closer alignment with adult learning systems, and greater attention to programme quality and learner progression (Box 4.9).

Box 4.9. Integration Courses for Migrants in OECD countries

Leveraging integration systems to develop foundational skills among migrants

Across OECD countries, immigrant integration programmes, such as language and orientation courses, represent one of the largest public investments in adult skills development. While their primary objective is to support social and labour market integration, these programmes frequently serve as a de facto entry point for foundational skills development, particularly in literacy.

Integration courses typically focus on host-country language acquisition, often combined with civic orientation and labour market preparation. For example, Germany’s integration courses (Integrationskurse) include extensive language instruction alongside modules on social and institutional knowledge, while similar programmes exist across countries such as Sweden (Swedish for Immigrants), France (Contrat d’intégration républicaine) and the Netherlands (Inburgering). These programmes are often mandatory or strongly incentivised, resulting in relatively high participation rates among newly arrived migrants.

Although not always explicitly framed as basic skills provision, language training can play a central role in enabling migrants to develop functional literacy in the host-country language, which can be a prerequisite for participation in further education, employment and everyday life. In many cases, migrants enter these programmes with low to limited proficiency, and language training therefore constitutes a form of foundational skills development.

Policy insight

Immigrant integration programmes represent a major, but often underutilised, channel for foundational skills development. Strengthening their contribution may require more explicit integration of literacy and numeracy objectives, closer alignment with adult learning systems, and greater attention to programme quality and learner needs.

Source: OECD (2024[53]).

Numeracy gap countries

Numeracy gap countries - England (UK), New Zealand and the United States - present a challenge that is both more tractable and more resistant than it appears. The strong literacy capability of the population with low foundational skills population is the primary policy resource. Adults who read adequately can access information independently, navigate support systems, engage with digital and distance learning environments, and sustain more self-directed participation than adults with severe literacy deficits. Technology-mediated delivery is more viable here than in any other profile, and the employer channel is well-suited to this context: numeracy deficits manifest visibly in sectors with high quantitative demands - construction, retail, healthcare, financial services - making the case for employer engagement concrete.

The central challenge is one of self-perception rather than access. Adults who read adequately often do not identify themselves as having a skills problem, even when their numeracy is severely limited. In some contexts, this may be reinforced by the greater social acceptability of low confidence in mathematics or numeracy, with adults more willing to describe themselves as “not a numbers person” than as having weak literacy skills. Conventional outreach framed around learning or skill development tends to fail with this group. Effective engagement requires reframing the offer around functional outcomes in domains adults already care about - financial management, health decisions, digital transactions - and working through trusted intermediaries in high-numeracy-demand sectors. Building confidence before progressing to a formal qualification is more effective than direct enrolment in standalone numeracy courses, which lead to low motivation and high dropout rates among adults who do not self-identify as struggling. The United Kingdom's Multiply programme illustrates this staged approach: its outcomes – including the progression of around 45% of learners into further training within six months – suggest that confidence-led entry routes can unlock sustained engagement where direct enrolment cannot (Box 4.10).

Prevention in numeracy gap countries points most directly to the quality of mathematics teaching in initial schooling. The consistency of numeracy deficits across England (UK), New Zealand and the United States suggests something systematic in how numeracy is taught and reinforced, in curriculum coherence, teacher subject knowledge and the early establishment of number sense, rather than the effects of individual disadvantage alone. Beyond schooling, sustaining numeracy in adult life requires environments that engage and reinforce quantitative reasoning rather than substituting for it. This includes workplaces, financial systems, public services and digital tools. Poorly designed automation that removes the need for calculation can accelerate rather than prevent the erosion of numeracy among those with limited proficiency, and policy design should take this risk seriously.

Box 4.10. Multiply Programme in the United Kingdom

Addressing numeracy deficits through staged and confidence-led provision

In the United Kingdom, the Multiply programme launched in 2022 as a three-year, £559 million initiative. The programme aimed to improve the functional numeracy skills of adults who had not previously attained a Level 2 (or equivalent) mathematics qualification. Multiply was delivered across all four nations of the United Kingdom, with some flexibility in implementation reflecting devolved education systems.

While free qualification-based courses have long been available, Multiply introduced a distinct approach by focusing on confidence-building and engagement prior to formal learning. Recognising that low confidence and negative past experiences with mathematics are major barriers to participation, the programme funded a wide range of short, non-formal and community-based courses aimed at re-engaging learners. Provision was delivered through local authorities, employers and community organisations, allowing for adaptation to local needs and populations.

Evidence points to strong uptake among target groups. In London alone, approximately 59 000 learners participated in Multiply-supported provision. Emerging evaluation evidence from London indicates a range of positive outcomes. Around two-thirds of learners (66%) reported increased confidence, including in their ability to continue in education, navigate everyday life and access work. Participation was also associated with improvements in financial literacy, with some learners reporting changes in spending behaviour and a better understanding of taxes and pensions. Importantly, Multiply appears to have supported progression into further learning: around 45% of learners moved on to additional training within six months, including Level 2 mathematics and other skills courses.

Multiply concluded in March 2025 as planned under its initial funding envelope.

Policy insight

Targeting numeracy deficits may require a staged approach that addresses attitudinal barriers before progression to formal learning. Flexible delivery across national and local systems can help reach diverse populations, including those at risk of labour market detachment.

Source: UK Government (2025[54]); Institute for Employment Studies (2025[55]).

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