Young people require a working week of tuition each year to be financially literate by the time they leave school, according to a new report.
MyBnk, the education charity which led the Money & Pensions Service’s financial workshops for 16 and 17-year-olds, said that 30 hours of financial education each year for 11 to 18-year-olds would significantly boost money management and practical maths skills.
These recommendations will be published in a report on Monday, alongside a financial education measure developed by the consultancy Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr). The new metric, based on survey data from February and March, shows that only 41 per cent of young people could be classified as financially literate.
Almost two-thirds of young adults do not recall having received financial education at school, according to Cebr. MyBnk’s chief executive, Leon Ward, said the government should explore expanding financial literacy outside the core curriculum to include extracurricular awards.
“We should think broadly about education, it can happen in the home between families and not just tied up with formal education and a controlled setting,” said Ward. Individuals would have responded better to inflation had they received formal training in money management, he said.
