MATHS
Contextualised maths skills
approach to delivery E3
Employability
A really useful OCR resource for Traineeships,
pre-Apprenticeships and Foundation
Learning Programmes
WHY A CONTEXTUALISED DELIVERY OF MATHS?
Learners progressing into the workplace need good maths skills. Research and successful practice in educational
centres have shown that delivering contextualised maths skills within employability and vocational programmes
is an effective strategy. It is motivational because this type of delivery shows learners maths skills are relevant in
the workplace. Learners are also prepared and able to use these skills with confidence in the workplace when they
start their new job.
WHAT DOES CONTEXTUALISED MEAN?
Contextualised delivery means delivering a maths skill within an employability or a vocational task or tasks. It is
recommended that maths specialists work collaboratively with employability and vocational tutors, and if possible,
local employers to develop a contextualised programme for the learners.
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ARE PROBLEM SOLVING TASKS USEFUL IN THIS STRATEGY?
Yes, using contextualised problem solving tasks makes this an even more effective strategy. Tutors can set groups of
learners a problem that would occur in a workplace. The learners could unpick the maths skills needed within that
task. Using an ILP (Individual Learning Plan), the learning aims to achieve the task can be recorded for each learner in
the group. The tutor can then support the group in learning the maths and work-skills needed to solve the task over
several teaching sessions.
WHAT IS THIS RESOURCE DOCUMENT?
OCR has produced this contextualised maths resource which can support tutors delivering maths within an
employability programme. Tutors can use this as one of a variety of models in which maths can be contextualised
into an employability programme. Tutors can then transfer this model into the development of new programmes
for contextualised delivery in their centre.
By using this guidance resource, the unit criteria and the two qualifications’ centre handbooks, a tutor should be
able to support a learner achieving these two qualifications.
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OCR QUALIFICATIONS TO BE ACHIEVED:
OCR EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS –
Entry 3-Learning to be financially aware – Unit 2 (3 credits)
CAMBRIDGE PROGRESSION – Entry 3-Decimals in
money and length (2 credits)
Recommended 40 GLH to achieve the two units in a
contextualised approach
Employability – Learning Outcomes
1 Know how money is used
2 Know about United Kingdom (UK) state financial benefits
3 Be able to plan personal spending for a week
4 Understand financial documents
5 Be able to carry out financial transactions
6 Know the consequences of getting into debt
Maths – Learning Outcomes
1 Be able to calculate amounts of money expressed in pounds and pence
2 Know that the decimal point separates whole number from fractional parts
3 Be able to round sums of money to the nearest £1.00 or 10p
4 Be able to round lengths to the nearest metre or 10cm
ILP ACTIVITY –
To support the learners engaging and understanding the learning programme they are
about to do, the tutor could type and cut out the above learning outcomes onto cards with an additional two
extra cards, one titled ‘I can do this’ and the other titled ‘I need to learn this’. The required number of sets could
be produced for no more than two learners working together on this kinaesthetic activity. They could then record
their learning aims onto an ILP and also record when they have achieved the skill.
The full units with criteria, teaching guidance and free support materials can be found on:
http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/vocational-qualifications-qcf-employability-skills-entry-level-3-award10345-from-2013/
http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/cambridge-progression-ocr-cambridge-award-certificate-inmathematics-entry-level-1-3-and-level-1-and-2/
IMPORTANT NOTE
The suggested activities can be adapted to suit the needs of different types of learners. Tutors, remember
that it is important that the learners are taught the specific skills for the Maths qualification and for the
Employability qualification. You will need to record the activities on the Learning to be financially aware
qualification’s paperwork and submit to OCR for moderation, and also register your learners to take the
OCR examined assessment for Decimals in money and length qualification. The final column in the chart
records the criteria for either E3 Learning to be financially aware i.e. (Emp. 1.1) and Decimals in money
and length i.e. (maths 1.1) which link to the specific activity.
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Activity
number
Suggested
activity title
Suggested activity
Suggested
timing
Links to
assess.
criteria
Problem solving task 1 – How can I find out about the different ways that I can use money in the UK?
1
Identify different
uses of money
Skills to be taught: recognition of different
types of payment methods (e.g. coins, notes,
credit card)
The tutor could discuss with learners how
they use money e.g. to buy a product or to
pay for a service. Discussion could lead to
looking at the different types of payment
available and link to Activity 3.
40 minutes
2
Identify financial
risks and rewards
The tutor could provide learners with two
flip charts 1) ‘Financial Risks’ and 2) ‘Financial
Rewards’ of using money. Learners to suggest
what they would consider a risk and/or a
reward to populate each chart e.g. Risk –
unable to make loan repayments, Reward –
receiving loyalty points on a store card.
30 minutes
Emp 1.2
3
Identify different
ways of paying for
goods and services
Tutor could provide learners with examples
30 minutes
of different types of items/goods and services
that could be paid for using the different
methods discussed in Activity 1. Value of
items to be varied in order to gain best spread
of methods, i.e. cash payment for a sandwich
and credit card for an electrical item.
This activity could lend itself to role play and/
or discussion.
Emp 1.3
4
Adding/subtracting
sums of money
expressed in
decimal notation
Skills to be taught: placement of decimal
point, addition/subtraction skills when using
decimal point, writing money in the correct
convention using decimal points
Maths 1.1
and 1.2
The tutor could demonstrate the decimal
value of coins using mixed coins and
encouraging column addition/
subtraction methods.
5
Emp 1.1
30 minutes
Activity
number
Suggested
activity title
Suggested activity
Suggested
timing
Links to
assess.
criteria
Problem solving task 2 - How can I find out what my financial benefits are in the UK?
5
6
United Kingdom
(UK) state financial
benefits and the
groups of people
who can receive
UK state financial
benefits
Skills to be taught: speaking and listening.
IT - use of computer and website navigation
The tutor could go to www.gov.uk to find
out about latest UK state financial benefits.
This information could be broken down into
a) what the benefit is b) groups of people c)
ways in which groups of people might gain
from receiving the state benefit. Learners
complete the activity as a matching exercise
with discussion, to follow regarding choices
made by learners. Learners could also check
whether their decisions were correct by
checking www.gov.uk themselves.
40 minutes
Emp 2.2
Emp 2.1
Activity
number
Suggested
activity title
Suggested activity
Suggested
timing
Links to
assess.
criteria
Problem solving task 3 – How can I set up a personal spending account for a week?
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Setting up an
account book
Skills to be taught: adding and subtracting
of sums of money in columns, alignment of
decimal points for addition and subtraction of
decimals and money, decimal points to two
places, calculation, budgeting
The tutor could encourage and demonstrate 50 minutes
how to set out addition and subtraction of
decimals (money) in columns to find totals.
This could be achieved through giving
learners lists of shopping items or other
personal expenses and encouraging rounding
to two decimal places.
Maths 2.1,
2.2, 2.3 & 2.4
Emp 3.1, 3.2
& 3.3
The tutor could provide a scenario with a
set of figures that cannot be exceeded and
from a group of cards or items the learner
has to work out which of the items can be
purchased without going ‘bust’. Learners
need to calculate if they have enough money
to purchase the items they require and if so
whether it may be possible for another item
to be purchased.
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7
Transferring skills &
knowledge about
money decimals
to using decimals
with metres and
centimetres
Skills to be taught: metres and centimetres
notation using decimal points
The tutor could discuss how the skills of
40 minutes
adding and subtracting money with decimals
can be transferred to use with metres and
centimetres. This could be achieved through
giving learners a variety of objects to measure
and add up and subtract in columns.
Maths 2.3 &
2.4
Activity
number
Suggested
activity title
Suggested activity
Suggested
timing
Links to
assess.
criteria
Problem solving task 4 - How can I understand the financial documents that I will see?
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Purposes of financial Skills to be taught: the various purposes of
documents
financial documents
Emp 4.1
The tutor could provide learners with different 30 minutes
routine financial documents, either just the
name of the document or a template/example
of an actual document e.g. bank statements,
payslips. Tutor also to provide information on
why the documents are needed e.g. receipt to
check the total paid is correct. Learners match
the document with the correct purpose.
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Key information
found in financial
documents
Skills to be taught: key words and information
to be found on financial documents
Example documentation of financial
documents can be provided to learners in
order for learners (working individually, in
pairs or groups) to highlight key information
found on each type of document provided
e.g. account number, balance. Learners to
feed back and discuss the information found.
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Using a financial
document
30 minutes
Skills to be taught (depending on scenario
given): estimating, adding, subtracting
The tutor could provide the learner with a
scenario relating to a payment/transaction
that has taken place and ask them to check
details e.g. receipt to check correct change
given, wage slip to check correct wage paid.
This activity could also be linked to Activities
14 and 15 below.
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Emp 4.2
Emp 4.3
40 minutes
Activity
number
Suggested
activity title
Suggested activity
Suggested
timing
Links to
assess.
criteria
20 minutes
Maths 3.1
Problem solving task 5 - How can I carry out a financial transaction?
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12
Rounding amounts
of money/metres to
the nearest 10p or
£1.00/10cm
Rounding amounts
of money/metres to
make approximate
calculations
Skills to be taught: rounding to nearest £
or 10p
The tutor could introduce rounding to
the nearest £1.00 or 10cm using practical
examples such as estimating the total cost of
a shopping list or estimating the length of a
carpet needed for a room.
Skills to be taught: estimating to nearest £
or 10p
The tutor could introduce rounding to the
30 minutes
learners and explain that 0-4 round down, 5-9
round up. The tutor could then give learners
a list of calculations/practical examples that
require simple rounding using money.
The tutor could give learners a list of
calculations/practical examples that require
simple rounding using distance. For example,
estimate the distance Ben travels to football
if he drives 3 miles to the next village, 8 miles
past the school and a further 2 miles in to the
football ground (0+10+0= 10 miles).
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14
9
4.1
Buying products
using cash
Skills to be taught: estimating
Buying products
using a card
or voucher
Skills to be taught: how you use a card or
voucher for payment
Maths 3.2
4.2
20 minutes
Emp 5.1
The tutor could ask learners to role play the
30 minutes
buying of an item, ensuring that the item/s are
paid for correctly (i.e. enough money provided)
and that change, if applicable, is checked.
The tutor could provide the learner with a mock 30 minutes
credit card or voucher code. An on-line shop
could be selected and a product selected for
purchase, Steps could be followed including
the payment screen with the mock details and
the transaction taken this far, but no actual
transaction taking place as the details provided
are not authentic.
Emp 5.2
Activity
number
Suggested
activity title
Suggested activity
Suggested
timing
Links to
assess.
criteria
Problem solving task 5 - How can I make sure that I don’t get into debt?
10
15
Different ways to
get into debt
The tutor could facilitate a discussion asking
30 minutes
for the learner/s to discuss ways they think
people could get into debt i.e. spending more
than you earn. The different ways can be
taken forward into Activity 16.
Emp 6.1
16
Problems that
debt causes
Emp 6.2
17
Help for someone
in debt
The tutor could facilitate discussion leading
30 minutes
on from Activity 15 where the learner/s decide
on a scenario (taken from Activity 15) using
the different ways of getting into debt and
the problems that this may cause e.g. by
spending more than you earn, you could lose
your home because you can not afford the
rent anymore.
The tutor could task learners (individually or
30 minutes
in groups) to look at what sources of help for
people in debt could be provided in relation
to the scenarios from Activity 17 (other
scenarios to be provided if necessary) e.g. the
individual can go to visit their bank/building
society to look at available options for their
payments/account.
Emp 6.3
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