Sixth-formers in half of Scottish schools are now being alerted to the dangers of online gaming and gambling, as charity workers attempt to plug vital gaps in financial education.
But children in Scotland still face uncertain provision when it comes to high school lessons on understanding and managing money.
The sixth-form sessions are delivered by the Stewart Ivory Financial Education Trust, which survives on charitable donations from Scottish fund managers. The charity provided an average three hours of money education last year in 54 per cent of Scotland’s high schools.
SIFET’s manager Paul Heward said: “We always try and reflect the life experience for young people leaving school and one of the current issues is online gaming and fixed-odds gambling. Of course, it’s not our job to tell young adults what to do with their money, but we think they need to know more about the pitfalls of instant activities that can drain their savings. There is rising concern about the ease in which young people can get into financial difficulty when it comes to online gaming and internet gambling.”
Separately an unpublished report seen by The Herald, based on the experience of private sector employees and volunteers who are invited into schools, concludes: “There is little evidence of structured and effective financial education being provided in our schools. The problem is that topics which can be taught across the curriculum tend to fall between school subjects....and consequently do not have someone with clear overall responsibility. It is left to schools and individual teachers to determine how best to achieve things with the result that financial education which can make a major contribution is often overlooked or delivered in a piecemeal way.”
The now-doomed Money Advice Service launched a Financial Capability Strategy in January, based on findings that four out of ten adults in Scotland are not in control of their finances.
A spokesman for Education Scotland said: “Curriculum for Excellence recognises the importance of building financial capability in all our children and young people. Financial education is explicitly embedded in the curriculum in both numeracy and social studies from early years to the end of the broad general education (BGE) which is S3, when young people are aged around 15.”
He said Education Scotland facilitated the Scottish Financial Education Forum , while “a number of private and third sector organisations are working with schools” including banks and credit unions.
RBS says its Moneysense programme set up 21 years ago to send branch staff into schools has evolved into an online resource, with school visits from volunteers. “Traditionally the volunteers came from branch, but we now have staff from all across the bank ...we actively encourage all of our employees to take part,” says the bank’s Sarah Binnie. “It’s now for young people between 5-18 and we provide more interactive tools and online support directly for parents as our aim is to support young people across all aspects of life.”
Financial Education Partnership run by Chartered Banker Institute offers “direct classroom support to teachers for meeting financial education ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ objectives”. It delivered 750 workshops and reached over 25,000 students in the last school year.
Clydesdale Bank, whose trained volunteers man the FEP workshops, also has a pre-school and primary school online programme, and runs the ‘Count Me In’ programme in Glasgow primary schools.
Lloyds Banking Group runs Money for Life, a personal money management programme targeted at young people and adults in further education and work-based or community learning.
Edinburgh-based fund manager Kames Capital has joined the RedSTART initiative , which runs occasional sessions for 15 to 25 young people from local schools.
Meanwhile for sixth-formers facing the perils of the financial jungle, SIFET’s objective is to“raise the awareness of financial issues and to help pupils prepare for their financial responsibilities whether they are destined for work, further education or still trying to find their ways after school”.
Mr Heward said its 13 self-employed education officers had covered 270 schools in total over the past five years, and 15,000 pupils last year. “Some schools don’t take sessions every year, some did it in other ways.” The charity could reach more schools, and could look at developing a programme for S5 use, if funding were expanded, Mr Heward said. On funding, he said: “We have probably got enough to keep us going until July 2017.”
Professor Charles Munn, former chief executive of the Chartered Banker Institute, commented: “There is still a huge job to be done, and it is not on anybody’s major agenda. They have not addressed the major problem which is that teachers are reluctant to teach the subject as they do not have the confidence or expertise.”
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