Financial education for children proves impactful

KickStart Money has delivered the training through MyBnk, a charity promoting financial education to five to 25-year-olds.

KickStart Money is a coalition of 18 savings and investment firms with a mission to ensure every primary school aged child receives a high-quality and effective financial education.

The coalition was brought together by The Investing and Saving Alliance (TISA) in response to research that found habits and attitudes towards money are formed as young as seven, making education at a young age vital to future financial capability.

Results from the pilot find that eight in 10 teachers have developed an understanding of good practice for financial education after the programme, an increase in understanding of 66 percent.

After training, 92 percent of teachers understood the suitability of financial education for their age group, compared with 22 percent before the intervention. The percentage of teachers able to understand the core components required to build financial capability in their pupils also increased from 26 percent to 83 percent.

Results also found that sessions for pupils aged seven to 11 had a stark impact on those who had no prior financial capability, with four in 10 non-saving primary pupils found to be saving regularly after taking part in the programme. Of the pupils that previously did not agree “how they treat money now will make a big difference to their future” , 60 percent believed this after the programme.

KickStart Money believe transforming financial habits and attitudes towards money at a primary level is key to building future financial skills and preventing young people falling into debt in later life.

A pupil who completed the KickStart programme said: “There are some things that we want but not specifically need. e.g we want a holiday, a gaming console or a phone but what we actually need is heating in the winter or water to wash ourselves. In order to do that we need to save.”