Who is teaching the teachers?

Personal Finance

Study finds that less than half of financial literacy tutors working with students have formal training; Commission signals need for proper teacher training.

20th Jun 12, 4:27pm by Amanda Morrall

Less than half of all teachers working in the area of financial literacy have formal training or qualifications in the area, according to research released today by the Commission for Financial Literacy and Retirement Income.

Commissioner Diana Crossan, in announcing a pilot programme aimed to give 15 teachers at Whitireia Polytechnic a higher education in personal finance, said there was an identified gap in the professional development of New Zealand tertiary teachers when it came to money matters.

Research, sponsored by Visa, found that just 47 percent of financial literacy tutors had received training or professional development, and what they had received was not exclusively linked to financial literacy.

Crossan said the knowledge gap signalled a problem that needed to be addressed if the country hoped to raise financial literacy levels.

“We know that the earlier young people become financially literate the better it is for their financial well-being throughout life. For many young people tertiary study offers them their first taste of financial independence. They face decisions about student loans, flatting and part time jobs and it’s vital that they have the knowledge to make good financial decisions that will set them up for their adult life. We need to make sure that those who are teaching financial literacy have the level of skill and knowledge required to give their students the tools they need.”

Crossan said the pilot programme was first of its kind in New Zealand. If successful, the Commission would like to see similar training introduced to other tertiary education providers.

Visa New Zealand's Sean Preston said the partnership with the Commission for Financial Literacy and Retirement Income was a good fit.

“Financial literacy gives people choice, financial protection and enables them to be informed when making financial decisions. We are excited about our partnership with Whitireia Polytechnic and believe formal programmes such as this are a vital step toward achieving a more financially savvy New Zealand.”

To assess the effectiveness of the training, on-going evaluations will be done to measure any shifts in financial literacy in both students and tutors. Tutors who participate in the programme will be tasked with integrating what they learned into teaching programmes.

The full findings from the CMLRI's report can be found on their website www.financialliteracy.org.nz.

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8 Comments

by Wolly | 20th Jun 12, 4:48pm 1340167717

"To assess the effectiveness of the training, on-going evaluations will be done to measure any shifts in financial literacy in both students and tutors"

The parasites will be watching closely for any sign Kiwi peasant teens are learning of the serious lifelong damage that debt will do to them!

by Stephen Hulme | 20th Jun 12, 5:57pm 1340171869

Visa New Zealand's Sean Preston said the partnership with the Commission for Financial Literacy and Retirement Income was a good fit.

Amanda does this partnership qualify as a Public-Private Patrnership and possibly deserve the negative overtones ascribed to such deals in this article?

by Wolly | 21st Jun 12, 7:01am 1340218905

Clearly there is a need for the govt and the parasites to involve themselves in education...this is a serious issue....allowing young Kiwi to discover how the corruption, fraud and credit drug pushing is eating away at their future, is to be avoided at all cost.

Isn't that true Mr Key!

So let's hear it for Crossan's call for 'teacher training' on this matter....otherwise NZ faces a future where too many Kiwi will know too much about the ongoing credit creating farce underpining the property speculation so beloved by so many in Parliament.

Left to teach finance, without the intervention and guidance by govt( the banks), the demand for credit and the property bubble (that fattens the pay packs of the bank bosses and ensures they stuff their gobs with bonuses too), will continue to trend downward.....we must stop this as soon as possible....right Mr Key!

by powerdownkiwi | 16th Oct 12, 10:42am 1350337368

Crosnan's whole basic ethos is fatally flawed; why would we teach teachers to pass on horseshit?

Just because folk pile up electronic indications of what they choose to think of as 'proxy', what is the guarantee that there will be any underwrite?

Where has Crosnan investigated the limits to growth, demographics vs energy, or indeed anything outside the dismal science?

To be fair, she would be in trouble if she turned to the Chief Science Adviser, if what I heard of his 'lecture' is indicative of his thinking. (He paid some lip-service to physical limits, I think he even mentioned Climate Change - but then off he went on 'economic growth'. You gotta wonder..... presumably those limits don't apply to the stuff we will need to 'buy', and there will be no contention......

by Nic the NZer | 16th Oct 12, 10:56am 1350338175

I think the reason this is pushed is a part of blaming the borrowers for the financial crisis, and any 'imbalances' in the economy. People accept this rather more easily if they think all their country people are a bunch of scrounging economic illiterates. What better way to support that idea than to teach them that they are!!

Nothing to do with the ecology of course, but I think that on average people make sensible economic decisions given the prevailing economic information. Of course hardly anybody who borrowed money before the financial crisis excected a massive rise in unemployment. You see other things too, like Amanda pointing out that borrowing to own your own house is basically a sensible retirement strategy, and if you are afraid of getting sharked on the share markets its probably the best savings strategy going. That phenomenon is usually called 'housing speculation' or Kiwi's poor economic literacy about the housing market.

by notaneconomist | 16th Oct 12, 11:46am 1350341169

Understanding the product and understanding the numbers - Could we please start with financial literacy in Parliament. Then move down to all those cumbersome Govt agencies who don't understand privacy so how the hell are they going to understand financial literacy.

The power of numbers is extremely important:

Lesson One ! Something I taught my kids many years ago - generational hand me down from Scotland.

Take a simple chess board 64 squares. Place a dollar on the first square and double the amount you will place in square 2 so it will be $2 then simply keep doubling the amount for the next square and so on until you reach the 64th square. How much money will you have by the time you get to the 64th square?

Look forward to seeing your answers !!!!

by powerdownkiwi | 16th Oct 12, 12:31pm 1350343880

Prof Al Bartlett - I think it was he - used to use 'grains of wheat'. The answer was: more wheat on the last square, than has ever been grown.

Do it with money, and it quickly becomes worthless.

I well remember an old gent touring the schools on behalf of the Post Office Savings Bank. Your shilling would turn into millions of pounds! He probably believed it too......

by notaneconomist | 16th Oct 12, 1:39pm 1350347978

PDK - my G-father taught us using sheep. We taught our kids the effects but also added in interest and inflation components etc and made it more complicated.