Perhaps you’ve finished your GCSEs, A levels or even university and have managed to get through your formal maths studies. You probably want to just move on and never look back. After all, who needs maths after secondary school?

First off, you’ll probably use maths a lot more in your ‘real life’ than you think. Organising your finances throughout your life is an obvious example of when you’ll use maths. What about leaving a tip in a restaurant? Or working out whether you’re actually saving any money on that ‘deal’ at the supermarket (sidenote: often times, a 2-for-set-price deal isn’t actually saving you any money!). So maths skills are going to be important and helpful in your future.

Additionally, a lot of jobs or higher education programmes may ask for you to have a certain level of numeracy skills. If you don’t feel confident about these skills, you may think that you shouldn’t bother applying for these opportunities, or that you can get by based on all of your other skills. But if a job asks you to have a certain level of numeracy, it’s probably a good idea to try to meet that to be sure that you can carry out the job requirements efficiently.

Don’t despair if you’re a little lacking in this department. There are ways that you can upgrade your numeracy skills to ensure that you’re ready for those opportunities. For example, LearnDirect offers maths programmes online. You can talk to someone from the company to find out what level and programme is most appropriate for you based on your needs and existing skills.

Checking out the National Careers Service website can also give you lots of great information about classes in your area. You can search by subject (maths, or if there’s something else want to brush up on), and postcode. You can also filter the classes depending on whether you want to learn in a classroom, online or by distance education. While some classes are free, others may not be. But the National Careers Service can talk to you about whether you’d be eligible to have to government sort out the costs for you.

Another option is to check in with your local public library. Some libraries will have numeracy support programmes where volunteers will come in once a week or so to work one-on-one with learners. If your nearest library doesn’t have such a programme, it’s likely that they can help put you in touch with an organisation that does. This is a great opportunity as tutors can focus on your weaknesses in a no-pressure environment.

So don’t feel like you’re stuck with the numeracy skills that you’ve got and it’s game over. If you want to upgrade for the sake of getting a good job or getting into higher education, there are lots of programmes available to help support you.