'Compulsory Financial Education Campaign – Part II (ta NOTW)' blog discussion 23 August 2010 at 11:03AM edited 23 August 2010 at 11:06AM in Martin's blogs & appearances & MoneySavingExpert in the news 9 replies 2.1K views

Former_MSE_Lee

This is the discussion to link on the back of Martin's blog. Please read the blog first, as this discussion follows it.

Read Martin's "Compulsory Financial Education - Part II (ta News of the World)" Blog.

Please click reply to discuss below.

Errata

A good start and the more the media & etc that get on board and drive it up the agenda should increase the momentum.
You're a governor of the London School of Economics - what are you doing at board level about this ? There's also a natural link to social mobility, why not have a chat with Alan Milburn ?

cazbie16

My daughter's lucky that she was given the choice to do Personal Finance when she moves up to Yr 9. With so many people struggling at the moment, it's good to think that the future generation will know how to handle things a little better (hopefully lol). Hope this goes through Martin, keep up the fight!

zena2105

i am behind in 100%, everyone needs to know how to handle money better and to start before they leave school and are able to get debt is a fantastic idea.

Beachguild

Our village has been looking at setting up a youth group and I suggested that one of the topics could be finance. The youth group may not happen quickly but I would still like to book our village hall at some stage to start a workshop for the kids. I am an accountant and I have present workshops before. If there is any material out there which we think we can use I would be happy trial it. Alternatively, I'll see what the kids want and create some notes from there.

If we can get a number of people who could present this information perhaps we could set up a charity and a network of people who could take the presentation into schools and provide support for parents. Surely employers wouldn't mind anyone taking an afternoon off to do this.

So far my 12 year old is doing well with her finances but we have a long way to go.

maturestudent40

I used to work for a bank (sorry!) and we noticed that the kids with parents who paid for everything for them (driving lessons, cax tax, insurance etc) without themselves having to make a contribution, were the ones that got into debt because they were used to having everything they wanted now, and continued that habit into adulthood by using credit cards and loans to pay for the things they wanted but couldn't immediately afford. The teens that worked to pay towards their own stuff didn't seem to get into financial difficulty so much because they thought more about what they spent. If they were earning minimum wage and wanted something costing £50 they knew they were going to have to do 10 hours work to pay for it.

oakhouse13

"the News of the World also supported it then with 2.8million free printed versions of the teen cash class guide given out with the paper)"

Free? Nothing is free.

The DCFS paid for it.

If you want to educate people about money, you should not be misleading about the numbers and how it was paid for.

hayleythedaisy

I wholeheartedly agree that people need to be taught and need to know to manage their finances... What concerns me about this is...

At school we learnt about the penny wheel and algebra. There were some people who simply weren't interested or academically minded enough to have learn it at the time let alone remember it a few years on. Why does anyone think that will be any different for financial eduation?
Sex Ed is delivered at school - do we still have unwanted teen pregnancies and STI's?
Is school age the right age to try and teach people these things? And would the people who don't have the aptitude to learn still benefit, if not are those people actually the target audience thus defeating the object?

Rose2White_2

I think this is a great idea and that hgh school is the perfect age group from 11+ all the way up to 16, but I do believe the kids would benefit from life skills rather than just finance and sex advise, this could be expanded to include parenting skills and how to run a house. I know so many teenagers who don't have a clue what bills you need to pay when you live in your own place yet with two years we expect them to cope.

Also my daughter did a babysitting course thru a local club which taught her more about what having a child entails that any sex ed class did. She had to look after one of these life like dolls for a whole weekend (sleepless nights and all) which put her off having children for the time being, she is 21 now in Uni and doing better than most financially due to what I have taught her, oh and child free still! I wish someone had taught me parenting at school rather than sex ed!

MSE_Martin

Rose2White wrote: »

I think this is a great idea and that hgh school is the perfect age group from 11+ all the way up to 16, but I do believe the kids would benefit from life skills rather than just finance and sex advise, this could be expanded to include parenting skills and how to run a house. I know so many teenagers who don't have a clue what bills you need to pay when you live in your own place yet with two years we expect them to cope.

Also my daughter did a babysitting course thru a local club which taught her more about what having a child entails that any sex ed class did. She had to look after one of these life like dolls for a whole weekend (sleepless nights and all) which put her off having children for the time being, she is 21 now in Uni and doing better than most financially due to what I have taught her, oh and child free still! I wish someone had taught me parenting at school rather than sex ed!

If I were education minister (i dont want the job don't worry) I would use the time after GCSE's before term ends to do a four week "life skills" lessons for all 16 years olds incorpating many subjects.

Yet thats a personal view and not something I will be campaigning on - financial education is what counts and Im glad to see (barring one very bizarre comment) its something most people support.