By Kelly Newman
Internal Communications & Social Responsibility Manager
July 2018
How can we stop kids getting HACKED off with their finances?
2 out of 3 teachers say their school lacks the skills needed to teach financial education
- The Money Charity
The need for financial education in schools
Do you remember learning about money in school? Did you have lessons to help you become financially literate? I don’t remember any financial education during my school days and I didn’t learn about credit from my parents, other than it wasn’t a good thing (I can still hear my mum’s words ringing in my ears: “Never a lender nor borrower be”. She firmly believed that if you wanted something, you saved for it…and that was all I heard about credit). Now, I regularly rely on my flexible friend and so I haven’t heeded her warnings! Ironically I learned about credit cards and how to get the best out of them in my first job, working for a credit card provider. Of course not everyone has the luxury of on-the-job learning as I did.
What I do remember was, as a child, being fascinated watching my mum separate money into piles, secured with elastic bands, as she split her budget between the monthly bills. I also remember being annoyed that my pocket money was shared between three money boxes: savings, holiday spending money and my ‘do what you like’ money. It took me a long time to overcome the resentment of not being able to dip into my savings moneybox or borrow from my holiday spending money for my latest ‘do what you like’ purchase. Perhaps that instilled a sense of money management into me after all?
Many parents pass on money management skills to their children. However an M&S Money survey found that some 14-18 year olds are given no help on basic money matters by their parents. Almost a fifth of parents had never discussed how to spend money well with their teenagers and 32% have yet to discuss how to budget or even describe what one is i . These days, who grows up watching their mum counting actual, physical piles of money? Does this still happen in the home? Or is budgeting and value for money less visible in the digital age?
If young people aren’t really being taught at home or in schools about good money management, where does that leave them? The App Store, maybe?
“We have a vicious cycle of financial illiteracy and debt to break in this country…financial education in schools would make a massive difference.”
Martin Lewis, moneysavingexpert.com
Cheese Matters - Nottingham businesses volunteer to improve financial education
Every year volunteers from Ikano Bank, along with volunteers from Capital One and Eversheds Sutherland, work with hundreds of young people as part of our award-winning Cheese Matters financial education programme, which is offered in partnership with Business in the Community and holds the Young Money Financial Education Quality Mark. Since launching in 2012, Cheese Matters (so called after the American slang for money) has reached almost 6,000 young people. And from my own experience delivering these face-to-face interactive sessions, it’s clear that the pupils have the ability to understand the essentials of budgeting and personal finance. They just simply need more opportunities to practise good financial management and the support to expand their knowledge before they step into the wider world and apply it in real life. The fact that many of our Cheese Matters volunteers work in financial services is a bonus; these kids get to hear about finance ‘from the horse’s mouth’.
Emmental 24 hours - a Hackathon to mature Cheese Matters
At Ikano Bank, we’ve made educating young people in our home city a priority and we’re committed to helping them to become good consumers.
Now, in a quest to take financial literacy skills out to even more young people and beyond our local reach in Nottingham, we’re going digital and have held a 24-hour hackathon - Cheese & Hackers - to reboot Cheese Matters for a digital generation in the hope of continuing the conversation and engaging pupils beyond the classroom. So a few of Ikano Bank’s co-workers, along with volunteers from Capital One and Eversheds Sutherland came together earlier this year to generate ideas for an online, interactive platform to transform how young people and their families increase their financial understanding and awareness… with just 24 hours to come up with the goods!
The seven hackathon teams - some of which worked through the night - didn’t disappoint! I was amazed at what they came up with in ‘just’ 24 hours! And I’m so excited that we’re working with Capital One’s tech team to realise the best bits from the hackathon to take financial education forward in leaps and bounds.
We could be on the verge of something huge in financial education and I’m excited for what the future holds, not only in Nottingham but across the country. As credit providers it’s our duty, and in everyone’s interests, to help create responsible consumers for the future. With the ongoing output from the hackathon, we could play a vital role in helping students & young people become good consumers of the future. It won’t be an overnight journey but here at Ikano Bank we’re in it for the long haul and hope to help make the financial education penny drop sooner rather than later.
Visit the Cheese Matters website
If you like this, you may like:
i. Davies, J.
(2010) Debt Facts & Figures – Compiled December 2010. Credit Action,
p. 8. Available at: https://themoneycharity.org.uk/media/december-2010.pdf
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