Sixth Form pupils recently gained valuable insights into the importance of understanding and looking after personal finances, with the College’s education programme focused on developing pupils’ essential life skills.
As part of the College’s commitment to preparing pupils for their adult world, the economics workshop, titled ‘Investing for the Future’, explored the importance of saving, the effects of interest rates and ways to invest.
Led by Head of Mathematics, Ian McLean, workshops like this allows Year 12 and 13 pupils to gain further knowledge on topics outside of the formal academic curriculum.
Outlining the importance of educating young people on topics such as financial management Mr McLean said: “It’s essential that all young people are given a basic understanding of the principles of money management, personal finance and investing as this can have a huge impact on their financial situation later on in life.”
Head of Mathematics, Mr McLean, said that it’s ‘essential’ for all young people to have an understanding of personal finances and money management
This correlates with recent findings from London Institute of Banking and Finance’s (LIBF) Young Person’s Money Index 2022/23 report which found that:
- 82% of 15 to 18 year olds want to learn more about money and finance in school – an increase of 10% on last year (72%).
- 68% of 17 to 18 year olds say that most of their financial understanding and knowledge comes from their parents, 19% say they are self-taught and only 8% cite school as their main source of financial education – a significant drop from last year (15%).
- Mortgages, pension, loans / credit cards, budgeting and taxes were the top five topics that young people wanted to know more about.
Furthermore, last year economics was ranked as one of the top 10 most popular A-level subjects in the UK with more than 39,000 entries for 2023 – an increase of 7.3% compared to 2022, according to a report by The I Newspaper.
Together, this demonstrates not only the lack of current knowledge held by young adults when it comes to managing finances, but also the demand from pupils who are eager to learn more about economics.
Framlingham College has also witnessed such demand to enhance their financial acumen, with 20% more Year 12 pupils taking Maths as an A-Level this term compared to last year.
“Offering pupils lectures like this can help open their eyes to the power of investing over a long period of time and can spark enough curiosity for them to go and start looking into it more”, Mr McLean explains. “Ideally it would be something that all pupils were able to access, so I am looking forward to opening financial education up to a wider audience more frequently in the future.”
Such lectures and workshops are part of wider College initiatives such as the Academic Enrichment Programme and Sixth Form Extended Learning Programme (ELP) all aimed to equip pupils with essential life skills.
Find out more about studying Maths, Business or Economics at Framlingham College.
