North Yorkshire: Air fryer classes help people with maths skills

A maths course has used air fryers to help people improve their numeracy skills and learn how to save energy.

The courses were part of a project created to support people struggling with high energy bills.

People attending the courses in York, Hinderwell, near Whitby, and at Catterick Garrison, received a free air fryer after attending two sessions.

Angie Taylor, from North Yorkshire Council, said the classes had helped increase people's confidence.

The Multiply courses, created in partnership with the City of York Council, had shown people the role maths played in everyday life, Ms Taylor added.

She said it was maths which enabled people to work out "the amount of carbohydrates or protein in food and how to calculate cooking times and temperatures".

"People use maths a lot in their daily lives and don't even realise," she said.

Ms Taylor, who is part of North Yorkshire Council's adult numeracy programme, said most people she encountered on the courses had a "negative view of maths".

"The thing I want people to get from the class is that learning when you're an adult can be fun and that everything we offer through adult learning is completely different from when you were at school," she said.

Sally Thompson, 52, who attended the two three-hour sessions at Tang Hall community centre in York said she wanted to learn "a cheap and easy way to cook".

However, she said when it came to maths and "anything complicated" she was "not so good".

Ms Thompson said she had wanted to learn the "tricks of the trade" with maths and to become "quicker and more on the ball".

"I found helping my children with their maths was very difficult, but If I was better able to help my grandchildren that would be brilliant," she said.

"I'm not very good with my bills and electric and gas so it'll come in handy with that too," she added.

In addition to the maths knowledge imparted, attendees also learned more about what air fryers could do.

Ms Taylor said: "Air fryers have been quite big recently and a lot of people own one but just make chips in them and actually you can cook anything in them."

She said using an air fryer can cost 33% to 46% less than using an electric oven.

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