Next generation must be capable of 'good financial citizenship'

Financial inclusion, social mobility, consumer empowerment, intergenerational fairness, skills and unemployment have never been far from the headlines in 2012, recurring in news coverage from the Olympics to welfare reform. The campaign for financial education is timely; the socio-economic challenges we face in the current climate mean that it has never been more important for the next generation to be capable of good financial citizenship.

The UK’s leading financial education charity pfeg(Personal Finance Education Group) has had a busy campaigning year. After a petition from MoneySavingExpert.com hit the required 100,000+ signatures to secure a parliamentary debate, the fourth ever e-petition to do so, financial education was debated by MPs in the Commons a year ago this month.

In 2012, the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Financial Education for Young People chaired by Justin Tomlinson MP, following on from its comprehensive and well-received report on financial education in primary and secondary education published at the end of 2011, held an inquiry into financial education in Further Education (FE), led by Duncan Hames MP. Its report, published in September 2012, found provision of financial education to be patchy at best, and called for a new set of standards for financial education in the FE system.

Parliamentary support for the campaign stretches beyond the financial education champions of the APPG. Since the last general election, 66 MPs and 10 Lords have spoken on financial education during parliamentary proceedings – and the issue continues to be on the agenda in Westminster.
Engaging young people as well as politicians, September saw the Parliamentary launch of ‘Our Money, Our Future’, a campaigning toolkit developed by pfeg and the National Children’s Bureau charity to get school pupils involved in the campaign for financial education. The project recently won the ‘Inspiring Project Award’ at the British Youth Council Youth on Board Awards. The financial education campaign received another boost in November, when the UK Youth Parliament voted in a ‘Curriculum for Life’ as their national campaign for 2013.

Next year will be an even busier year for the campaign for financial education in schools, with the government likely to publish the results of its National Curriculum Review early in the New Year. In addition, the APPG’s strand for vulnerable young people has launched a new inquiry led by Fiona Bruce MP. The call for written evidence is open until the end of January and the Committee will be hearing oral evidence in March, with the report due to be published in September.

More information about pfegand the APPG is available at http://www.pfeg.org/policy-campaigning/pfeg-and-parliament