What’s wrong with financial capability teaching? Dull subject matter of course.

What’s the answer? More worksheets.

With levels of consumer debt now crashing through the £1.25 trillion barrier* it is more than time for financial capability education to be fully addressed. Survey after survey** has proved the point that young people (and indeed adults) need serious help when it comes to money management. Schools Secretary Ed Balls wants to “focus on getting the basics right”, but the problem is that most financial capability teaching materials are dry and often boring. What’s worse, many of them are at such a high reading level that they exclude the very people who need this information the most. Now teachers can address this new curriculum area with a brand new eight-part comprehensive set of books on Money Management.

Money Management titles use relevant and topical material to bring financial capability to life. It is for the thousands of students who’ve had enough of boring maths and just want to learn the numeracy skills that is relevant to their everyday and future lives. When it comes to understanding bank accounts, keeping track of spending, financial planning and working out taxation most young people are at a loss. But the good news is that they have a genuine desire to learn about and improve their financial literacy.

Alison Barry teaches some of the most disaffected young people in the country at HMYOI Brinsford. Commenting on the Money Management series, Alison said:

“Our students often have a mixed level of skills and confidence. Most of them have a literacy level below level 1 and they also lack is a real grasp of financial issues. Addressing money issues is a key issue in offender behaviour but sourcing materials at the right level with an adult tone has been a real headache. With Money Management it just goes to show that, given the right encouragement, even very disaffected students can warm to financial issues.”

The demand for these books has been huge. How can you expect offenders to manage timesheets, wages and so on if they have no idea how to budget? Tackling young people’s financial capability with accessible, interesting and clear explanations is key.

Speaking about the Money Management series, co-author, Jayne Garner said:

“We wrote this series to teach essential financial information in a truly accessible format. But we found that working through examples is not just for people with low-level literacy skills. One of the researchers for this title, who wants to remain anonymous, has a 2:1 in Communication studies from Cardiff University. She is 26 and has been in debt ever since she took out her first student loan when she was 18. It wasn’t until she started losing sleep at night because of the knowledge she’d gained researching for the Dealing with debt title that she realised her financial situation was totally unsustainable. Quite literally, writing this book has saved this young woman from financial ruin.”

And the researcher isn’t alone. With rising personal debt levels in Britain, and a lack of long-term savings, better money management must be addressed as a pressing issue.

Editors notes

1. *Creditaction.org.uk, February 2007
2. ** Numerous surveys have been done – most recently research by Pfeg (Personal Finance Education Group) in March 2007 revealed that over half of England’s teenagers have been or are in debt by the time they are 17. In addition, 90% worry about their money and spending but tend to think of overdrafts and credit cards as easy ways to spend more than they earn, or to buy things they couldn’t normally afford.
3. 39% of prisoners in young offender establishments had reading skills below level 1, 46% had numeracy skills below level 1, 48% had spelling skills below level 1 and 60% of prisoners in young offender establishments had punctuation skills below level 1. (Prison Statistics for England and Wales 2002). Level 1 is recognised as the lowest level of achievement for accessing and keeping employment.

About Axis Education
Axis Education is the UK’s leading independent provider of innovative publications for adult learners and disaffected secondary school students.

Jayne Garner is a literacy specialist with particular expertise in motivating disaffected learners. She has taught in prisons and young offender institutions for over 15 years and is the managing editor of Axis Education and the author of the best-selling Making ends meet titles.