First ever financial education textbook for schools arrives in Wales. Teenagers in Wales to benefit from vital guidance and support on managing money.
Young Money will be delivering 16,500 copies of Your Money Matters, a financial education textbook, free into over 200 secondary and middle schools across Wales this month, thanks to funding from Martin Lewis, the Money Saving Expert, and the Money and Pensions Service. The textbook, which is in both English and Welsh, is accompanied by a digital Teacher’s Guide and a PowerPoint edition of the textbook for teachers to use in their classrooms, free of charge.
The textbook has been developed to support schools to deliver a holistic programme of financial education, providing more students with the essential knowledge, skills and attitudes towards money as they transition into greater independence. This is particularly crucial at a time when many families and individuals have been financially impacted by the pandemic.
Your Money Matters is designed for students aged 14-16, although it can also be adapted for use by both younger and older students. The textbook is mapped to the new Curriculum for Wales and has been trialled with teachers and students. It is certified as a ‘Quality Mark’ resource, which is the UK’s only widely recognised accreditation system for financial education resources.
The Wales edition builds on the successful 2018 roll-out of the textbook in England, where 340,000 copies were delivered into English schools by financial education charity Young Money, with funding from Martin Lewis. Through the height of the pandemic, while financial worries were high amongst pupils and families, almost 45,000 copies of the textbook and digital resources were also distributed to schools in Northern Ireland and Scotland through joint funding from the Money and Pensions Service and Martin Lewis.
The importance of saving money, how to manage a budget, understanding payslips, student finance, protection against fraud and identity theft… it’s all covered in this highly informative and engaging resource.
The textbook contains a wealth of facts and information as well as interactive activities and questions for students to apply their knowledge. The chapters are as follows:
Children and young people growing up today are exposed to an increasing range of financial decisions, from day-to-day activities such as whether or not to download apps and music online, to longer-term decisions, such as how to finance a car purchase, and student financing.
Your Money Matters has been created by Young Money (part of Young Enterprise) to help give students the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to make informed decisions about managing money, now and in the future. By exploring a variety of themes around key topics such as saving, borrowing and the world of work, Your Money Matters will help students to become financially capable and learn to manage money successfully.
In 2020, the UK Strategy for Financial Wellbeing ten-year framework was launched by the Money and Pensions Service to help achieve the vision of everyone making the most of their money. It aims to reach two million more children and young people with a meaningful financial education across the UK by 2030, and this textbook is an important step to achieving that ambition in Wales.
“The pandemic has shown the lack of personal financial resilience and preparedness of the UK as a whole. Not all of that can be fixed by improving financial education, but a chunk of it can. Of course, we need to educate people of all ages, yet young people are professionals at learning, so if you want to break the cycle of debt and bad decisions, they’re the best place to start.
I was one of those at the forefront of the campaign to get financial education on the curriculum in England in 2014, and we celebrated then thinking the job was done. We were wrong. Schools have struggled with resources and there’s been little teacher training.
Something else was needed to make it easy for schools and teachers. So even though I questioned whether it’s right that a private individual should fund a textbook, no one else would do it, so I put pragmatics over politics and did it in 2018.
I’m delighted that now we’ve proved the success of that book in England, the Money and Pensions Service has agreed to team up to provide this much-needed resource for Wales – adding a rightful sense of officialdom to the whole project.”
“Developing knowledge, skills and attitudes in relation to money and personal finance from an early age enables young people to make more informed financial decisions, making the most of the opportunities they are presented with and avoiding some of the pitfalls that they will undoubtedly have to navigate.
“Developing knowledge, skills and attitudes in relation to money and personal finance from an early age enables young people to make more informed financial decisions, making the most of the opportunities they are presented with and avoiding some of the pitfalls that they will undoubtedly have to navigate.
“The Money and Pensions Service works to ensure everyone in Wales and across the UK can easily access the information they need, from pocket money to pensions, to make the most of their money throughout their lives. Alongside parents and carers, schools and teachers are uniquely placed to help children and young people to develop the money skills they need. Later in the Autumn term, Talk Money Week (8th-12th November) will provide a great opportunity for schools to talk money in the classroom and engage pupils on money matters.
Looking further ahead, a new Curriculum for Wales will be rolled out from 2022, with financial education relevant to a number of the new areas of learning and experience, including maths and numeracy and health and wellbeing. Financial education enhances financial wellbeing and prepares learners to understand and manage their incomes now and in the future. It can help them choose the best financial products and services and protect themselves from fraud and exploitation.
We are delighted to partner with Martin Lewis OBE and Young Money to support teachers to help children and young people in Wales to develop positive money habits that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.”