Does Training Teachers in Financial Education Improve Students’ Financial Well-Being? An Abstract

Abstract

Financial education has been recognised as a transformative service. It aims to increase individuals’ capability as financial consumers, thereby improving their financial well-being. Whilst many countries have developed financial education programmes for schools, the impact of such interventions is mixed (Hoffmann and Otteby 2018). A parliamentary report on financial education in schools in the UK (APPG 2016) concludes that much more support is needed to strengthen the delivery of financial education in schools, in particular through improving teacher confidence and skill set.

To address this, we explore whether training teachers to teach financial education has a transformative impact on both the confidence and skill set of teachers and the financial well-being of the students they teach. The research design comprised a randomised controlled trial among teachers teaching financial education to young people aged 16–18 years: 60 schools were randomly assigned to the treatment group and 60 to the control group. The treatment comprised professional training in financial education delivered by Young Money, the UK’s leading financial education charity, before the start of the school year. In total, 87 schools fully participated in the study; 46 Treatment and 41 Control, including 101 teachers and 1215 students.

Overall, the study confirms the transformative impact of financial education on the financial well-being of young people in this context, and provides evidence of the value of targeted professional training for teachers in financial education. As a result of the training, teachers felt more confident teaching financial education and their students were better able to manage their money, protect themselves from fraud and identity theft, think and plan about the future through using financial advice and choose financial products. Governments should consider the wider roll-out of teacher training in financial education according to a set, consistent curriculum. This could be embedded in Initial Teacher Education programmes for newly qualifying teachers and provided as CPD for existing teachers, supported by access to high-quality resources.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding provided from Young Money and the Money Advice Service What Works Fund.