Personal Finance Education for Vulnerable Groups
Young offenders helped to gain accreditation for developing skills in finance.
Against a backdrop of financial crisis, crippling debts, rising unemployment and plunging confidence, a new All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Financial Education for Young People was launched 12 months ago. It has grown into one of the largest APPGs ever formed, with 226 MPs across all parties signed up. Its purpose: to address young people’s fundamental lack of understanding about money, debt and consuming. As Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, comments:
“It’s a national disgrace that… we’ve educated our youth into debt, but never about debt.”
Personal Finance Education provision in schools, colleges and universities has been under the APPG’s spotlight in the past year; the Primary and Secondary strand of the group presented its report on Financial Education in the Curriculum to Parliament on 12th December 2011. The message was clear – Personal Finance Education should be a compulsory part of the national curriculum.
But what of those who may not be involved in mainstream education? Another strand identified as needing particular help to make informed financial decisions was that of Vulnerable Young People. Within this generalised title there is a breadth of groups to support – those with learning disabilities and physical impairments, children in care, young people in Pupil Referral Units, minority groups, those for whom English is a second language, young carers, homeless young people, those leaving military service, and young offenders. All of these groups are amongst the hardest to reach, but should be entitled to access the same information and knowledge as everyone else.
Young Offenders was one of the groups chosen for closer attention. The APPG recognised that the potential for finding ways to improve their financial literacy was good; communication networks have become well established through local authorities, and government has recently pledged increased support for offender learning:
“We plan to place a much greater emphasis on developing the vocational and employability skills that offenders need to find and keep jobs and Apprenticeships… We will also continue to meet the functional needs of offenders through more engaging and motivational provision.” Making Prisons Work: Skills for Rehabilitation – Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 2011 (page 7)
One of the fundamental skills needed by offenders going into the workplace, as well as out in the community is, of course, financial competence – to understand earnings, taxation, pensions, National Insurance, budgeting and financial services.
To ‘engage and motivate’ young offenders in their learning, courses should be relevant, achievable and reward success. ASDAN Education’s programmes and qualifications are rooted in this ethos and many meet both the aims of the APPG for financial education and the requirements the government has set out for offender learning.
The qualifications that feature financial education components include:
- Employability Qualifications: Entry 2 to Level 3, which offer a wide range of work-related units.
- Personal and Social Development (PSD) Qualifications: Entry 1 to Level 2, which enable offenders to become more confident individuals who can make a positive contribution to society.
- Community Volunteering Qualifications (CVQ): Entry 3 to Level 3, which recognise and accredit the community activities and voluntary work undertaken by offenders.
Unit Accreditation is available for all qualifications (from 10 hours) and provides opportunities to develop a personal learning programme. Where a qualification is not the desired outcome, ASDAN’s Personal Finance Short Course leads to an accredited certificate of achievement.
Options such as these can add significant value to a wide range of training and support programmes aimed at advancing life opportunities of vulnerable groups such as young offenders. Volunteers from the financial services sector can play an important role in providing expertise and resources.
For the full APPG report on Financial Education and a directory of useful resources, visit the pfeg (Personal Finance Education Group) website www.pfeg.org
For more information about running ASDAN Education programmes and qualifications contact barbarabenson@asdan.org.uk website www.asdan.org.uk
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