The majority of students currently do not receive any form of financial education in school or college
Financial education is currently part of the curriculum in Secondary School and is designed to teach children how to handle their finances confidently, but new findings by the Money Advice Service show that just 4 in 10 young people in the UK say they’ve received financial education. Of those that had received financial education lessons, 90% said they found them useful.
Financial education is vital, as 61% of parents admitted that they didn’t feel confident talking to their children about money and with two-thirds excluding their children in discussions about household finances.
A lack of financial education and understanding can have a long-term effect on an individual’s ability to manage their own money as they approach adulthood. The research highlighted this, finding that among 16 – 17 year olds, 32% said they didn’t have experience of putting money into a bank account, 39% said they didn’t have a current account at all and 59% couldn’t read a pay slip.
Suella Fernandes MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Financial Education, said:
“These research findings clearly show that there is plenty more to do to improve the delivery of financial education.
“In order to ensure high quality provision schools should appoint a financial education ‘champion’, ideally a member of the Senior Leadership Team, to coordinate and promote learning and training in this area.”
If you would like to have the DebtAware Money Management programme delivered within your school, please contact Brian Souter at Brian.souter@debtadvicefoundation.org