A couple of months ago, we welcomed the launch by Justin Tomlinson MP of an All Party Parliamentary Group on Financial Education for young people. His initiative closely followed our own announcement that we were engaging with DebtCredt as a way of giving Members a direct route to providing practical support to educating youngsters into the mysteries of managing cash.
The APPG has been holding a UK wide intensive inquiry into the level of financial eduction in primary and secondary schools, entitled 'Financial Education and the Curriculum.' The six-month inquiry is calling for evidence from across the financial and education sectors to reveal the true level of financial education in our schools in order to establish a consistent and sustainable model for educating future generations. The aim, they say, is to enable the creation of a model of finance education that truly equips young people with the skills and knowledge they need to become intelligent and responsible consumers.
The inquiry committee is looking for examples of evidence from the financial and education sectors detailing the current approaches to financial education in the UK. The inquiry will be looking at provisions that currently exist for financial education in schools in order to establish a consistent and sustainable education model for future generations in England. This is where you come in!
I think it is essential that we, as an industry and as the ICM, take part in this consultation. My view is that personal finance education (addressing attitudes and behaviours as well as numeracy) should be a statutory requirement throughout the whole school curriculum. I believe also that such learning is best delivered by teachers who have themselves been schooled in the art of personal finance and who have the support of professionals from within the financial community. The initiative has gained some real momentum in recent weeks and deserves to be supported. We have the opportunity of ensuring future generations learn from the mistakes of the past - a past where there is so much financial distress.
Submissions to appg@pfeg.org have to be received no later than 12 noon on 3 May 2011 and I would urge you to take part.
As I shall be away next week, I have invited Sean Feast - the managing editor of Credit Management - to 'guest blog' on my behalf.
No comments:
Post a Comment