First-ever financial education textbook funded by Martin Lewis arrives in Welsh schools
The first-ever curriculum mapped financial education textbook – funded jointly by MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis and the Money and Pensions Service – has now landed in secondary schools in Wales.
It follows the successful roll-out of versions in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Over 16,500 hard copies of the Welsh version of the Your Money Matters book were delivered for free to over 200 secondary and middle schools in September this year, as well as an accompanying online teacher’s guide and a PowerPoint version for use in lessons, which were all made available for free to support home learning
In Wales, the Government-funded Money and Pensions Service and Martin Lewis, each contributed £69,862.50 towards the cost of the textbooks, while the Money and Pensions Service also provided an additional £26,000 to fund the creation and translation of the digital teacher’s guide and PowerPoint.
The books are being delivered by education charity Young Money, which is part of charity Young Enterprise.
The books are based on the original English Your Money Matters textbook, which Martin funded solely with a donation of £325,000 to Young Money.
English secondary schools received 340,000 copies in 2018, while 15,450 copies have been delivered to schools in Northern Ireland, and 27,000 copies to 350 schools in Scotland.
MoneySavingExpert.com is the UK’s biggest consumer website, it is owned by Ewloe based MoneySupermarket.com, it’s founder Martin Lewis said: “The pandemic has shown the lack of personal financial resilience and preparedness of the UK as a whole.”
“Not all of that can be fixed by improving financial education, but a chunk of it can.”
“Of course, we need to educate people of all ages, yet young people are professionals at learning, so if you want to break the cycle of debt and bad decisions, they’re the best place to start.”
“I was one of those at the forefront of the campaign to get financial education on the curriculum in England in 2014, and we celebrated then thinking the job was done.”
“We were wrong. Schools have struggled with resources and there’s been little teacher training. Something else was needed to make it easy for schools and teachers.”
“So even though I questioned whether it’s right that a private individual should fund a textbook, no one else would do it, so I put pragmatics over politics and did it in 2018.”
“I’m delighted that now we’ve proved the success of that book in England, the Money and Pensions Service has agreed to team up to provide this much-needed resource for Wales – adding a rightful sense of officialdom to the whole project.”
The Welsh edition of Your Money Matters teaches the importance of saving money, how to manage a budget, understanding payslips, student finance, protection against fraud and identity theft and much more.
The textbook contains a wealth of facts and information, as well as interactive activities and questions for students to apply their knowledge.
The chapters are as follows:
- Savings – ways to save, interest, money and mental health.
- Making the most of your money – budgeting, keeping track of your budget, ways to pay, value for money, spending.
- Borrowing – debt, APR, borrowing products, unmanageable debt.
- After school, the world of work – student finance, apprenticeships, earnings, tax, pensions, benefits.
- Risk and reward – investments, gambling, insurance
- Security and fraud – identity theft, online fraud, money mules.
Digital copies can also be downloaded for free:
- Download Your Money Matters – Wales.
- Download Your Money Matters – England.
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