MyBnk calls for 30 hours a year of financial education in UK schools

This article is the last part of the FT Financial Education and Inclusion Campaign

Young people need a week’s worth of tuition each year to be financially savvy by the time they leave school, according to a new report.

MyBnk, the education charity that runs the Money & Pensions Service’s financial workshops for 16- and 17-year-olds, said 30 hours of financial education each year for 11- to 18-year-olds would dramatically improve life management. money and practical math skills.

These recommendations will be published in a report on Monday, alongside a financial education measure developed by the consultancy Center for Economics and Business Research (Cebr). The new metric, based on survey data from February and March, shows that only 41% of young people could be classified as financial literacy.

Nearly two-thirds of young adults do not recall receiving any financial education at school, according to Cebr. MyBnk chief executive Leon Ward said the government should consider expanding financial literacy outside of the core curriculum to include after-school rewards.

“We should be thinking broadly about education, it can happen in the home between families and not just related to formal education and a controlled setting,” Ward said. Individuals would have responded better to inflation if they had received formal training in money management, he said.

The current economic climate has heightened the need for financial awareness among those struggling with debt and cost of living pressures.

Mark Bailie, managing director of price comparison website Compare the Market, which funded the research, said a lack of financial confidence had an impact on decision-making in households.

Several charities, including the FT’s Financial Education and Inclusion Campaign (COP) and National numeracy urged the government to provide appropriate financial education. The CBI previously estimated that prioritizing financial education would boost the UK economy by £6.8billion every year.

“Teachers and parents have a lot of pressure on their time, so FT FLIC has prioritized creating easy-to-use educational resources on basic finances,” said Aimée Allam, Executive Director of FLIC.

In February, the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Financial Education said schools were struggling to teach financial education although it is a compulsory part of the national curriculum. He said budget and training requirements are a barrier to funding education.

A teacher survey commissioned by the APPG found that about half of all respondents said they had no budget set aside for teaching financial education in their school.

Allam added, “We would welcome explicit government endorsement of the importance of financial education in helping the next generation navigate an increasingly complex economic landscape.”