Staff and students at the University of Reading’s Institute of Education have been closely involved in a pioneering HSBC-funded project that helps educators teach children about money. For the last year, the Institute’s mathematics team has worked with an educational charity to roll out the ‘What Money Means’ project. The project culminated in a film crew marking this key milestone in working for a less turbulent future for our children’s finances.
Funded by HSBC bank and managed by The Personal Finance Education Group (pfeg), it is estimated that this programme has benefited over 23,000 children over 5 years. In October 2012 pfeg won a prestigious Charity Times award for the project.
pfeg’s consultant, Alison Terry, who has been working closely with Catherine Foley and Nasreen Majid at the University to develop training materials, reported that the charity was impressed by how readily the university tutors recognised the potential benefits of the project.
The University’s trainee teachers who tried out the new ideas whilst on school placement were overwhelmed by the positive response. Said one trainee: “I was surprised at how excited the children were about doing a money based activity”.Another remarked: “I realised how many misconceptions the children had about money and how it is used”.
The footage from the day is being used to help other Higher Education Institutes who are planning to introduce financial capability into students’ training and can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGqsLxuALio