Enhancing numerical literacy to promote graduate employabilityLouise Taylor, Nottingham Trent University

• Anderson, 2011

• Law Society, 2003-11.

• QAA, 2007. Benchmark Statement for Law.

• SRA, 2001. Joint Statement on Qualifying Law Degrees.

• Susskind, R. LETR Briefing Paper 3/2012: Provocations and Perspectives.

• National Numeracy, 2012.

“Mathematical literacy is an individual’s capacity to identify and understand the

role that mathematics plays in the world, to make well-founded

judgements and to use and engage with mathematics in ways that meet

the needs of that individual’s life as a constructive, concerned and reflective

citizen.”(National Numeracy 2012)

1. The challenging graduate market.

In such a challenging market it is clear that we must

move with the times and deliver modules and extra-

curricular activities that develop skill-rich graduates

who are both employable and well equipped to

become the lawyers of tomorrow (Susskind 2012,

p.5). Key to this is the recognition that numerical

literacy is a core skill which ought to be interwoven

throughout the activities offered within our law

schools.

The graph on the

right demonstrates

an overall decline in

training contracts

registered with the

Law Society since

the start of the

economic crisis in

2008.

“A student should demonstrate a

basic ability where relevant and as

the basis for an argument, to use,

present and evaluate information

provided in numerical or statistical

form.”

(QAA 2007, p. 4)

3. Do we meet expectations?

As law teachers it is our job to facilitate our

students in gaining the knowledge and

skills necessary to secure employment

upon leaving university and then to survive

the challenges they may face once in that

employment.

Presently we are providing students with

the minimum opportunities to enhance their

numerical literacy during their time with us.

While this does meet the regulatory

requirements for a QLD this may add little

in significant value to the numerical literacy

of the students that we teach. Worse still,

in some cases we may actually be

providing students with an educational

landscape so largely absent of numbers

that they are allowed to forget some of the

numerical literacy which they had

developed as part of their secondary

education. To this extent we are doing our

students and their eventual employers a

dis-service.

If we want to promote graduate

employability and future-proof our students’

careers then we should place numerical

literacy alongside skills such as language

literacy at the core of the QLD. This could

be achieved through the implementation of

a fairly simple model without detracting

from the substantive content of the QLD.

All that is needed is the will (and numerical

literacy) of the law faculty to facilitate it.

As a result of the global economic crisis the

legal graduate employment market has been

in a state of decline (Law Society, 2003-11).

In such a competitive market employers are

able to be more discerning than ever in their

choice of graduates for the diminishing

number of training contracts available. This

has placed an increased expectation on the

Qualifying Law Degree (QLD) to deliver

commercially savvy graduates who possess

key transferable and employability skills. In a

host of recent surveys conducted with

graduate employers numeracy has been

highlighted as one such expected skill.

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher

Education (QAA) (QAA, 2007) and the

Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) (SRA,

2001, p.1) require that the QLD includes a

taught element of numeracy. As law

teachers we must ask ourselves whether we

meet this minimum requirement, and even if

we do, whether we could do more to

enhance the numerical literacy of our

students in order to promote their

employability and future-proof their careers.

The findings from a content analysis of module

specifications for all modules offered on the full-time

year -long QLD at Nottingham Law School (NLS)

are displayed in the pie chart below. This shows that

one module (Law of Contract and Problem Solving)

includes an element of numeracy skills teaching.

Assuming that this approach is representative of

that adopted in other law schools it can be

concluded that the minimum regulatory

requirements are being met. That said, there clearly

remains scope to further

Optimum numerical

literacy

Year 1 non-credit bearing

mandatory online module

Final year credit bearing optional

module

Employability (incorporating

numeracy skills) summer school

It is contended that the model outlined above

would be relatively simple to introduce, would

provide an optimum yield of numerically literate

graduates, and would cause minimal disruption to

the substantive content delivered on the existing

NLS QLD curriculum.

“Employability skills are the most

important attributes that

businesses look for in new recruits,

but graduates are currently falling

short of employers’ expectations...”

(Anderson 2011)

2. Expectations of the QLD. 4. Enhancing numerical literacy.

Modules w/o numeracy

Modules with numearcy

enhance the numerical

literacy of our students

by offering additional

numeracy skills teaching

and extra-curricular

activities where

appropriate. NLS QLD modules

References

Direct dial: (0115) 848 6054

Email: Louise.Taylor@ntu.ac.uk

Louise Taylor

Nottingham Law School

Nottingham Trent University

Burton Street

Nottingham, NG1 4BU.

For further informationAcknowledgements

Special thanks go to Sinead Moynihan-Case for

her technical assistance and to Jenny Holloway,

Rebecca Huxley-Binns and Martin Millward for

their critical advice.

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