Weekly Blog by Philip King, CEO of the ICM - 'Should you say yes?'

I recently started a discussion 'Teaching teenagers about personal financial management' on the LinkedIn ICM Credit Community http://linkd.in/dd1hHF. I was not quite sure what type of response, if any, I would receive. As it happens, the response was superb, and the comments made were useful, insightful and most thought provoking. The clear consensus is that there is plenty to teach and much practical advice to be shared.

This is a subject that we, as credit professionals, feel very strongly about. If children leave school with an understanding of how to manage money and finance, budget expenditure, and be discriminatory in their use of credit, then there will be less need for the advice sector, which is already stretched.

There are many good and worthy initiatives already under way, particularly those supported by pfeg (the Personal Finance Education Group) on whose Forum the ICM sits. But in the absence of personal finance being a serious and compulsory part of the national curriculum (which looks increasingly unlikely), it is clear that still more needs to be done.

The Institute has recently announced a partnership with DebtCred, as detailed in the pages of CreditManagement magazine http://bit.ly/eJSb2K, and this provides a genuine opportunity for us to get involved and make a difference in a really practical way either personally or through our employers. If I was to challenge you to stop for a moment and consider: "could I and should I give a couple of days a year to make a difference and help youngsters cope better as they enter adult life?"

If the answer is yes, please drop me an email at governance@icm.org.uk.

Follow me and the ICM on:

http://twitter.com/philipkingicm, http://twitter.com/icmorg or http://linkd.in/dd1hHF