Watchdog calls on industry to invest in education

Speaking at the launch of the pfeg (Personal Finance Education Group) Excellence and Access Project, which will provide teachers with the help and support they need to teach personal finance in schools, he said:

We know the industry agrees with us on the need to improve the financial capability of young people leaving school. Those of you already working with schools can give yourselves a pat on the back. And today I am calling on the rest of the industry to do its bit too.

If you spent a fraction of your multi-million pound marketing budgets on supporting personal finance education in schools, it would go a long way towards ensuring that future generations leave school equipped to make independent, informed decisions about their personal finances and long term security. And that, in turn, would be good for the UK financial services sector. Well-informed consumers save more.

Personal finance education was first introduced onto the national curriculum a year ago and the FSA is today publishing research benchmarking how secondary schools have responded to the subject:

• Nearly 90% of schools already teach some personal finance and the majority of those not yet teaching it regard it as important

• But less than half of schools had heard of the Department for Employment and Skills (DfES) guidance on personal finance education. 80% of those who had heard of it were using it just a little or not at all.

• Two thirds of secondary schools asked for more help including materials, information from the financial services sector, advice from educational bodies, and training opportunities.

Howard Davies said:

We have made a good start, but clearly there is much more to be done to make money matters come alive in the classroom. Pfeg will do just that and has come at the right time for schools.

The FSA fully supports pfeg, sharing a common goal to increase young peoples understanding of the financial system.

Notes for editors

1. The pfeg Excellence and Access Project was launched today at the Financial Services Authority.

2. pfeg is a registered charity bringing together teachers, the FSA , government, consumer bodies and industry representatives. It aims to promote and facilitate personal finance education in UK schools so that young people are equipped to make independent and informed decisions about their personal finances and long term security.

3. For more information about pfeg and the Excellence and Access project contact Wendy van den Hende on tel 020 7220 1735.

4. Personal finance teaching was included as a non-statutory part of the National Curriculum in September 2000. The FSA commissioned the National Centre for Social Research to conduct a survey aimed at assessing the extent to which personal finance is being taught in schools. A nationally representative sample of 517 primary and secondary schools in England were interviewed in March and April 2001 and the full survey results will be published in January 2002. The results published today relate to the 314 secondary schools that were interviewed.

5. The FSA regulates the financial services industry and has four objectives under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000: maintaining market confidence; promoting public understanding of the financial system; the protection of consumers; and fighting financial crime.

6. The FSA aims to maintain efficient, orderly and clean financial markets and help retail consumers achieve a fair deal.