BBC Children in Need, Young Enterprise and HSBC UK partner up to deliver tailored financial education support for young people experiencing issues and challenges in their lives.
Not every young person feels confident with financial skills or has access to learn and develop financial capability. In fact research shows that young people with a long-standing illness or more deprived economic backgrounds are at increased risk of poor financial capability.
BBC Children in Need and HSBC UK have joined forces with financial education charity Young Enterprise to adapt their award-winning Money Heroes programme for young people experiencing a range of issues and challenges in their lives, including disabled children and young people, care experienced children and young people, young carers and those affected by poverty.
BBC Children in Need has identified 100 voluntary organisations across the UK to take part in delivering the adapted programme, including after school and sports clubs, organisations working with care leavers, youth clubs, Home-Start family centres, and many more.
Following focus groups with participating organisations, the Money Heroes resources have been adapted to ensure they are accessible to all, with books now available in braille, large-print, and as big books, as well as BSL signed videos, audiobooks, and a new early-reader eBook.
Each organisation will receive two hours of training delivered by a Financial Education expert from Young Enterprise, followed by up to eight hours of mentoring to continue to support them in delivering the programme to the children they support. Organisations will also receive a ‘Money Heroes in a Box’ resource pack, containing a suite of physical and digital resources including practitioner guides, activity booklets, board games and books.
It is anticipated that through this partnership, over 10,000 young people experiencing a range of needs and challenges will access financial education through the Money Heroes programme in the next 12 months.
Accessible Money Heroes resources, including the storybooks, will also be available for free to parents, carers, teachers and other educators from September at www.moneyheroes.org.uk.
Claire Hoyle, Commercial Director, BBC Children in Need said: “With the cost of living crisis intensifying and more children experiencing poverty, it’s more critical than ever that children and young people have equal opportunity to develop skills and start building for their future.”
“BBC Children in Need exists to ensure that every child or young person has the opportunity to thrive and be the best they can be. Working with Young Enterprise and HSBC UK, we’ve identified 100 voluntary organisations across the UK who are actively supporting children experiencing a range of issues and challenges to deliver adapted Money Heroes programming.”
Russell Winnard, Chief Operating Officer at Young Enterprise said: “We are thrilled to have partnered with BBC Children in Need and HSBC UK in order to provide the Money Heroes programme to a broad range of groups beyond our mainstream school settings. Ensuring the materials are as accessible as possible for a wide variety of need and ability has been a crucial part of this. Managing money is a key life skill and all young people should be afforded the opportunity to develop such skills for the future.”
Katie Danby, Head of Wealth and Personal Banking, HSBC UK, said: “It’s crucial that young people of all backgrounds and lived experiences are able to access high-quality financial education to help them build confidence and skills for a lifetime. Developed in partnership with Young Enterprise and BBC Children in Need, the adapted Money Heroes programming aims to consider where young people may be coming from and how coping with other challenges in their lives may influence how financially capable and confident they are.”
Accessible Money Heroes resources, including the storybooks, will also be available for free to parents, carers, teachers and other educators from September at www.moneyheroes.org.uk.
How our partnership with the Jack Petchey Foundation is helping young people build key employability skills
Young Enterprise has been working in partnership with the Jack Petchey Foundation – a foundation that inspires and motivates young people aged 11-25 across London and Essex – for more than nine years.
Together, we are helping equip young people aged 13-18 across London and Essex with the skills they will need as they approach the world of work. Working collaboratively, we have supported young people from mainstream secondary schools and alternative education provisions, including a Pupil Referral Unit.
We know our work is important and valued by young people. The recent Jack Petchey Foundation Shaping Our Future Covid-19 Youth Survey asked 6,000 young people what opportunities they wanted to see after the lockdown and over half (53%) answered ‘training opportunities and career advice’.
The foundation’s support has enabled more than 2,600 young people to take part in a Young Enterprise programme over the last academic year (2021/22). These interventions help develop attitudes, an enterprising mindset and the life skills these young people will require as they begin planning for their futures.
We know young people engage with their learning in different ways. That’s why we offered a combination of digital and classroom-based programmes to help them develop key employability skills.
With many young people displaying a lack of confidence when applying for jobs and being unable to recognise the transferable skills they already have, it’s important to help them more readily identify these skills and build their confidence.
Our digital programme, Employable Me, helps young people to recognise the skills and qualities they already have while also developing their knowledge on topics such as writing CVs, interview tips and job-hunting. As a self-led programme, participants take responsibility for their own learning, setting goals and planning their next steps. Feedback from one young person taking part in the programme demonstrates its impact:
Research tells us that young people learn best when faced with real, relevant and meaningful scenarios. That’s why the in-school Employability Masterclass programme provides opportunities for young people to hear from local employers and employees about the skills and qualities required to succeed in the workplace.
Providing access to relatable role models who have authentic stories and who share their own journey is key to the programme’s success, helping bring the world of work to life for young people. This is why Young Enterprise’s Volunteer network is crucial in providing young people with access to role models who can help raise their aspirations and build their personal networks.
After taking part in one of the masterclasses, 84% of participants agreed that they felt confident about entering the world of world, an increase from 54% beforehand, with one young person expressing their gratitude for the opportunity:
We are incredibly grateful to the Jack Petchey Foundation for their continued support. We also thank everyone who has played a part in supporting this cohort of young people, including volunteers from organisations such as Euroclear, Samsung, London Business School, Colgate, Mazars and Civica; what you are doing is changing young people’s lives.
We believe that when young people are given opportunities to make a connection between what they are learning and how they can practically use this knowledge, they become much more engaged. We know that the curriculum and teachers are already stretched for time with the wide range of content that needs to be delivered, and our experience at Young Enterprise is that an applied learning approach can bring real benefits to young people’s education without adding to these pressures.
We also regularly hear from teachers about how these interventions can positively impact engagement in learning and progress in attainment and future preparedness among their young people. And yet we know that for many reasons, there isn’t a consistent application of practical and real-world-based learning – applied learning – across schools, colleges and other education settings.
Join us at our free one-day conference, where you can find out more about applied learning and its benefits, attend two practical workshops exploring applied learning in more detail, and enjoy structured networking opportunities. We will explore the value and impact that providing applied learning opportunities can have, as well as gain ideas on how to create and embed the right applied learning projects for your students, explore evaluation techniques to assess applied learning projects and learn ways of building successful partnerships to enhance your projects further.
98% of our 2022 conference delegates would recommend the event to a colleague.
Book your place
“Good investment of time attending, excellent stakeholders available & good workshops”
– Financial Champion
Address:
Prospero House, 241 Borough High Street, London, SE1 1GA
Date:
6 December 2023
Time:
09:45 – 16:00
