A Radical solution to Applied financial education in schools and colleges.

Financial education the issues and a solution:

Financial education is taught by non subject specific teachers that is the first thing you must understand. It has not improved since 2016 when it was placed on the National Curriculum as a non compulsory element, thus consigning it to a nice to have aspect, rather than a must have. We now have a whole generation since Covid-19, who have fallen behind in a range of subjects and will be disadvantaged in life and in the workplace. Schools both Primary and Academies, plus sixth forms rely on business, maths and economics teachers to provide them with content knowledge; largely gleaned from text books and irrelevant/outdated/archaic/ syllabi. These teachers assuredly try to do the best they can. However, they lack the in-depth appreciation and real world experience that a seasoned financial services expert can bring to the learning environment.

Passing an exam cannot and will not provide young people with an enduring and ingrained progressive ability to navigate applied decision making in their personal finance issues. We are failing a generation of people who consequently lack the tools, to successfully combat the ever increasing complexity, of what it means to thrive in this fragmented contextually arcane economy. Ask any student what is the difference between currency and money and how money comes into existence and watch the confusion reign on their face and in their answers. The terrible truth is: most people have little or no idea of how a loan is processed by a bank or other lending institution. The level of ignorance and paucity of insight has remained stubborn to remove,, despite purported attempts by others, to suggest improvement has been made.

The solution is to invest in revisiting what financial education is and how it best can be transmitted in a comprehensive and sustainable manner, that is applied; leading to a continuum that contextualises the capacity to absorb the holistic elements of its implementation. Fundamentally,, we must introduce a system of coaching and mentoring. This intervention, has been shown to have the most lasting efficacy, when it comes to retention of concepts, application of ideas and body of content. Therefore, it is vital that we educate teachers to become qualified mentors and coaches; which when combined with an understanding of applied financial education, provides an integrated and accessible pathway to being instrumental in revolutionising real financial education.

@ Copyright Steven Harknett (2024)