Personal finance education is a planned programme of learning opportunities and experiences designed to increase the financial capability of all pupils from every social and cultural background.
Its aims are to enable young people to develop:
- knowledge and understanding to inform judgments and decisions about managing money in their present and future lives
- appropriate attitudes reflected in taking personal responsibility for money management, questioning the claims of some financial products and evaluating available information before taking financial decisions
- financial skills demonstrated through day-to-day money management and planning for future financial needs, such as budgeting for weekly household items, monitoring bank accounts and credit cards and checking whether savings and investments are meeting financial goals.
Personal finance education should permeate the entire curriculum and extend beyond the school walls into everyday life.
The whole school curriculum includes all the planned learning experiences in the school and beyond so that learning outside the classroom takes on a new importance. This is particularly significant for personal finance education in which real life experiences both in and outside school enrich and provide relevance for learning.