Does anyone know of any alternative training methods that could be used to train young people in financial awareness and benefits? The young people I train also have mild learning difficulties and as this can be quite a tedious subject, I want something fun and that will also keep them engaged. Any ideas??
7 Responses
Get them to organise something?
Hi
This sounds a great project. How about getting them to budget for and organise a (fictitious) event (open day, retirement party, wedding, 18th birthday bash, new product launch). You could give them a ball park figure to work to – £1000 or £100 maybe – and come up with price lists for catering, decorations and so on. Get them to choose the "venue" as well, so they can think about negotiating with the venue for extras. Could be great fun with a prize for the most cost effective and VFM.
Good luck
can you define “financial awareness”……..
…..for example in the commercial world this usually means budgeting and P+L but the Citizens Advice run financial awareness courses which are about such things as banking, saving, pensions etc
Rus
Finance and benefits
I coordinate a prgramme in Scotland that is funded through Lloyds Bank called Money for LiFE. Go to http://www.moneyforlifeprogramme.org.uk and you will find loads of resources and suggestions for fun learning including an interactive online budgeting game that is really straightforward. Other ideas we have tried for this type of group have been to shop for the ingredients for a meal, using brand and value goods, and then to prepare the meal and taste test the options. Lots of skills included there as well as the financial capability and can work as a team task.
Helen
Fun Game for financial awareness
http://financialentertainment.org/play/celebritycalamity.html
Get them to organise something?
Hi Jenny,
Yes, this is something we have thought of, I think this would be a really fun way of getting them to understand the concept of budgeting. Thanks for your help! 🙂
Financial Awareness
Rus, Yes this would be looking at budgeting mainly – so working out how much money they are receiving, what they spend their money on and then being able to work out the difference between the things they need and the things they want.
Thanks for the links Helen and Mark, these are great!!
Training Games
Hi Joanne
I’ve just spotted your post so I hope that I’m still in time to offer some tips.
There’s some great games out there in the market which will help teach children financial awareness skills.
Besides the classics like monopoly (of which there are budgeting variations one can play) there are specific board games out there to teach the value of money to young people. I beleve that young people will react really well to these types of games, as kids (and some adults!) love playing games!
Recommendation 1: Education Interactive
A company specialising in numbers based games and puzzels. They have two games you may be interested in. Links in the titles.
(i) Money bags
Players collect, count and exchange money and get used to the idea of having to earn money. By having to use only certain coins, players have to think about how to use the coins available to them – just like in real life. The game promotes a postive attitude to saving and earning, promoting coin recognition, addition and subtraction skills.
(ii) To your credit
Each player takes on the role of a different character, helping them to achieve a successful lifestyle. The winner is the first player to achieve their personal targets with their finances properly managed and on track!
Take turns to move around the board, picking up opportunity cards, making payments, earning study points and paying off your credit cards.
Recommendation 2:
Depending on your budget there is always the superb Cashflow 101 game by Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad / Poor Dad fame. This is a higher level game than the above but nevertheless teaches some really important lessons.
There is a kids version of the above although it is a book and not a game.
The same people also have a website of interactive games specifically to teach kids about finance called Rich Kid Smart Kid
I personally use a lot of games to teach adults about finance although still very interested in your experience with teaching children about finance. Please let me know how you get on or add another post.
Good luck
Stuart