Financial Education Forum Updates – October 2021

A message from Sharon Davies, CEO of Young Enterprise

You may well be aware that the last in-person Financial Education Forum was held back in October 2019!  I’m extremely pleased that we are  able to come together for the Forum again, and truly  grateful to the Bank of England for providing their amazing venue for the event.  Indeed, like many things in this current environment, the Forum is our very first hybrid event – with members able to join in-person or remotely.

Since the last virtual Forum we have seen a significant change with the Department for Education, with Nadhim Zahawi replacing Gavin Williamson as Secretary of State for Education and Robin Walker replacing Nick Gibb as Minister of State for School Standards.  As I’m sure many other Forum members have done, Young Enterprise has written to the incumbents emphasising the importance of financial education and welcoming an opportunity to explore how this can be developed further to ensure all children and young people are receiving meaningful and appropriate support.

In July of this year we welcomed the publication of a rapid All Party Parliamentary Group Inquiry into the provision of financial education within primary schools.  Once again I’d like to thank Julian Knight MP for his Chairing of the APPG and driving the Inquiry.  We were supported throughout the Inquiry by the brand-new charity The Centre for Financial Capability and would like to thank them for their significant contribution into the final report.

The Inquiry highlighted the importance of financial education being a consistently delivered  part of the primary school curriculum.  Whilst there exist opportunities for money and finance to be used as a context for learning within subject areas, such as Maths, this does not ensure a consistent provision.  The Inquiry recommends that, consistent with other nations of the UK, England places financial education on the national curriculum for primary schools and that the UK Financial Wellbeing Strategy goal of reaching 2 million more young people by 2030 be extended to every young people within primary education receiving a high-quality and financial education.  I look forward to working with Julian Knight and others to follow up the recommendations over forthcoming months.

Whilst there remain significant challenges within schools and colleges as a result of the pandemic the green shoots of a more normal academic year do appear to be showing themselves.  I very much hope that enables all of us to advance our collective endeavours towards a  high-quality and sustainable financial education.

Sharon Davies