Businesses and schools educating the next generation

Good habits start young and when it comes to managing finances a firm grounding in how to look after your money can stand you in good stead for business and life in general.

The importance is not lost on Cumbrian employers who are engaged in a range of initiatives to nurture money-wise heads on youthful shoulders.

Across the county, businesses of all sizes are playing their part to instill financial acumen in their employees of the future.

Cumbria Youth Alliance (CYA) works with children from 12 to 16, as well as young people who are NEET (with no education, employment or training).

Youth promise lead Claire Sands says although financial education is on the curriculum at schools they need support to deliver it.

"Schools are at capacity," she says.

"They've got a limited time. So that's where organisations such as ourselves, other peripatetic organisations and businesses come into the mix to add their brand of expertise.”

CYA works with several schools on its Call to Social Action project, in which students develop an idea for a social initiative for their community. One project from each school receives £400 to carry it out.

Many local businesses have also been involved in helping children taking part in the project, including Sellafield, Lyon Equipment, in Tebay, the Westmorland Group and Napthens solicitors, in Kendal.

"They have to come up with a social action idea, pitch it to the rest of the school and to a panel of judges," says Claire.

"One of them wins and then they get to run with that project.”

The students work with mentors from different local businesses as well as HSBC to develop the plan and consider the financial elements of it.

"We get different perspectives from the local community about the financial challenges and the social challenges, but also the practicalities. The cost implications need to be discussed and assessed,” says Claire.

CYA chief executive Becky Wolstenholme says the initiative helps connect employers with their potential future workforce and has led directly to young people getting jobs with local businesses.

“One CEO told me recently that one of the children they’d worked with on the programme came for an interview and they took them on because they knew they had exactly the skills they needed in their business,” she says.

CYA also runs its 22-week Money Matters programme for young people who have left care, which is part of the Department for Education funded Multiply scheme.

“It is for young people who are 19-plus to work on consolidating their understanding of financial awareness and budgeting," says Claire.

"It's intense and it's one to one and it's bespoke.”

She says making the teaching relevant to the young people is particularly important. This has involved examples such as discussing whether it is better to spend money on a tattoo or putting down a deposit on a flat or even taking them fishing to investigate whether it is cheaper to catch fish or buy them from the shop.

"The bespoke, individualised and very tailored way that we approach our young people has proven to be particularly effective, because it's relevant and it helps them understand,” says Claire.

William Howard School, in Carlisle, has been putting a special emphasis on financial education and working with local businesses along the way.

In 2014 associate assistant headteacher Tracey Hill was instrumental in the school becoming a Young Money and Young Enterprise Centre of Financial Excellence and she was named financial education teacher of the year in 2015.

Tracey, who is also its financial education lead and head of business studies, says although financial education is part of the personal, social, health and education curriculum in the UK, the way it is taught can vary from school to school.

She says effectively delivering financial education to children depends on their age and whether they are at the stage of just beginning to spend money themselves and have a bank account or perhaps taking on part-time work.

"Into sixth form we're looking at the cost of going to university or cost of a first car, moving away from home, how they're going to manage what they're getting to make it last across the week and we'll have the tax office come in and do a lesson so they understand tax,” says Tracey.

"By the time they leave here, they have enough knowledge to be able to make decisions on what they will and won't do with their money. With financial education you're not there to say what's right and wrong. It's the understanding that's important because unfortunately, for some of them their parents' generation didn't get that education so it's very difficult for them to get that from home.”

Partnerships with local businesses play a major part in financial education in the school with past projects including designing new bank notes with Innovia, based in Wigton, or designing piggy banks for The Cumberland Building Society.

Tracey says it is frustrating when people assume schools are doing little to prepare children for managing their personal and business finances based on their own experiences in the past.

"It might not be to the extent in some schools that it is in others but it is part of the national curriculum,” she says.

“It's a very different landscape now and if students aren't equipped to manage their finances, going into the world of work, then it really puts them on the back foot.

"The links that we have with businesses are so important, because our students are their workforce of the future. All these people really make a difference to their understanding because it goes with them into the real world. The time that they take out of work really does add value for them in the future.”

One business which has been working with schools is The Cumberland, which has been partnering with digital education company EVERFI to bring its “Vault” financial education course to primary schools.

The course teaches pupils aged from nine to 11 how to make wise financial decisions around budgeting and spending, income and careers and credit and borrowing.

In the first year of the partnership it has been delivered in 26 schools to 738 students.

“We’re really looking forward to continuing our partnership with EVERFI,” says Nigel Taylor, head of marketing and brand at The Cumberland.

“Pupils can often struggle to contextualise how to use their maths skills outside the classroom, but money and money related concepts are where we apply maths most often in daily lives so this programme really helps develop that.”

During the spring, schools in Furness received visits from staff at accountants JF Hornby and Co, in Ulverston, which has joined forces with the Furness Education and Skills Partnership as the delivery partner for financial education sessions under the Build My Skills initiative.

Students who took part in the sessions were also invited to join the JF Hornby Money Club, which involves making pledges to be careful with their money, save what they can when they can and never give their passwords or sensitive information to anyone.

The sessions also included conversations about different types of currency, online safety and scams and budgeting.

“Learning about the basics of dealing with money; saving, budgeting, paying bills is so important because we all have to deal with these things as adults,” says JF Hornby managing director Paul Hornby.

“The earlier you establish knowledge of finances and good habits around money, the more likely it is that they will set you up for a healthy and positive financial future, whatever it is you go on to do.”