George Tsounias explains how the CII is delivering free financial education across the country
The Personal Finance Society's My Personal Finance Skills initiative delivers free financial education workshops to schools and college across the UK through a network of more than 900 members (Education Champions), who are committed to giving something back to their local community.
Workshops cover things such as staying safe from scams, moving on from school, understanding risk, future finances and the popular 'Discover' game. The programme was on course to reach more than 20,000 students until things were put on hold due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Since its launch in September 2019, however, the programme has delivered more than 460 financial education workshops, reaching 14,000-plus students.
FINANCIAL EDUCATION WORKSHOPS
Financial education material is aimed at students aged 14-18 and workshops have been designed to fit within a typical one-hour lesson.
Resources will enable Education Champions to deliver standalone workshops aimed at raising the financial competency of students. The content has been created in collaboration with Young Money, a trusted knowledge provider supporting schools and colleges for more than 15 years.
Themes covered in our first series of workshops include:
- Moving on from school -- student finance, earning, tax, NI, pensions.
- My future finances -- enabling students to develop their understanding of the value of everyday expenditure.
- Making decisions and risk -- students gain an understanding of their attitude to risk and how this can influence financial choices they make.
- Staying safe -- identifying financial scams.
This programme also includes the existing Discover Fortunes workshop, which focuses more on employability as students take on the role of financial advisers in this interactive board game that is played in teams of up to five students.
Furthermore, the financial education materials have received The Financial Education Quality Mark and are supported by Money Advice Service, following assessment by an independent panel of experts, two educational experts and one financial expert.
To adapt to the current circumstances, the programme adapted its in-school material into online financial education sessions to be hosted on its website. As well as online sessions, the website hosts a student money blog and some bitesize learning videos.
From September, it is hoped that workshops will continue to take place virtually in the first instance and in school once it is safe to do so -- always in line with government guidance.
We are committed to helping students have better financial awareness and providing the support to teachers who are passionate about students' understanding of money.
To find out more, please email: george.tsounias@cii.co.uk
To find out more about the initiative, visit: www.mypersonalfinanceskills.org
George Tsounias is relationships manager of education at the CII