It’s all about the numbers and the brains of the future

It is important that children get the opportunity to gain life skills. Financial know-how is one of the most important life skills you can get. This knowledge allows people to make the right decisions about important issues and plan for their future, when it’s time to go out in to the world.

The best piece of financial advice that I was given unfortunately is something that isn’t always that helpful – “you never regret your extravagances!” – however, I do add to that, "make sure you can afford them and not go in to debt to fund them!"

Our Every Day Money workshops delivered by Edcoms, bring the subject of financial education to life through simple experience based activities and fast-paced team challenges. They are designed to give pupils of all abilities a step by step guide to the world of personal finance, to develop their knowledge and confidence and let them have fun at the same time.

We aimed the workshop at pupils in year 10 to support the Maths and Citizenship curriculum for England, Wales and Scotland.

Focus of the workshop

The workshop focuses on three key areas:

• Get It! (salaries, payslips and taxation).
• Spend It! (What we have to spend money on and what we want to spend on).
• Save It! (Why we should save money and how to do it).

In 2017 we delivered 48 days’ worth of financial education to 50 different schools in Sussex, Surrey, North London, South London , Birmingham, Berkshire, Cardiff, Salford and Leeds.  We chose these places because of our need for future employment for our offices and as part of major city regeneration through our infrastructure investments.

We set out to reach over 200 teachers and reach 3,000 KS2 pupils. I’m pleased to say that we reached over 6,200 pupils and over 379 teachers, which is way over what we promised to do - but it’s not all about the numbers. Looking through the comments from teaching staff and pupils we’re pleased that we hit the spot to improve understanding of the role that money plays in society.

Comments from the teachers

"The team that delivered the sessions today were absolutely fantastic, I cannot speak highly enough of them. All the students had a thoroughly enjoyable day. The whole day ran superbly well and the students had a fantastic time and were engaged with the activities. The Legal & General team running the workshop were excellent and gave us immense confidence in supporting future students when delivering these key financial lessons."

What the pupils said

Pupils have been equally thrilled with the results. Here are their answers to the question: “What is the most important thing that you will take away from today?”

• To budget and manage money properly
• To keep on top and track spending so you don’t end up with lots of debt
• Spend wisely, don’t take loans
• The difference is between Gross and Net pay
• How to manage household bills
• Tax bands, different types of wages and NI contributions
• Check the interest rates before taking out a loan
• How to manage your finances throughout life
• The session was worthwhile and meaningful and covers the most important areas of financial education. The workshop would have been even better if some of the activities could have been longer

So where next for Jeff and team?

In 2018 we’re committed to reaching more teachers and pupils in schools around our offices and in key investment cities in the UK as part of our Every Day Money Programme. Why not get in contact of you think your school would benefit from our programme?

We’re also pleased to bring in the team at Salary Finance into Legal & General’s portfolio of Infrastructure Investments. They will be focussed upon growing their delivery of financial education and financial products for employers big and small to reduce their employees debt levels and encourage them to save just a little!