Financial Literacy Education Project
For some years, successive governments and employers have expressed concern about levels of financial literacy. As the need for improving financial literacy among UK youths has gained currency, many have begun to raise the question - will education improve young people's knowledge about finance and, moreover, will that knowledge 'translate into more effective consumer behaviours?' (Tennyson & Nguyen, 20011)
Our research focuses on the personal financial management practices and related aspirations of sixteen to eighteen year old students taking the ifs School of Finance courses. A mixed methods longitudinal survey design is employed, which combines a repeated questionnaire survey with in-depth qualitative interviews with students in clusters of case study institutions. Our analysis draws on advanced statistical techniques and a sociocultural theoretical framework.
The research questions were:
1) What are students' personal financial management practices and their aspirations? And,
2) How do their personal financial management practices and aspirations vary over time?
Funding for this project was generously provided by the ifs School of Finance. The project began in December 2004 and was completed in December 2007. Various outputs have been produced, some of which are available from this website.
1Tennyson, S. & Nguyen, C. (2001). State curriculum mandates and student knowledge of personal finance. The Journal of Consumer Affairs, 35 (2), 241-262.