GOLDEN SKILLS - Parents as Teachers of Financial Literacy

As a new era of growth and prosperity gathers pace, there are many families for whom the debt legacy of recent years remains a profound and ongoing problem. Debt consolidation and restructuring, negative equity mortgages, personal insolvency and vulture funds are terms that many adults across Europe are all too familiar with, along with repossessions of goods and property and evictions. These are the visible signs of the stress that many families are under. For many adults, a lack of financial knowledge is at the root of these ongoing problems.

If we can learn anything from recent events in Europe, it is to recognise that financial literacy is a key skill for all Europeans if we are to achieve the inclusive and equitable society that is one of the EU's core objectives. Financial education is essential for life in the 21st century. Yet very little attention is paid to financial literacy in schools. Schools are not teaching children financial skills for real life. The big responsibility lies with parents, who are the most important role models for their children and from whom children learn how to manage their money. But how can parents be good teachers of financial literacy if no one supports them?

During the development and pilot phase of the GOLDEN SKILLS project, the results achieved were considered in terms of resources, measures and people. 1. this includes a range of appropriate learning resources for families that promote financial literacy. The partners have deliberately selected the different types of learning resources for their flexibility, adaptability and accessibility. All resources for family members are available via a smartphone and on mobile devices. 2. an educational programme for parents to support their engagement with the newly developed learning resources for families 3. a customised online learning portal has been developed and populated with innovative learning resources for families. All resources developed are available in traditional and online formats in five partner languages and are available to all interested parties without restriction to meet the open access requirements of the ERASMUS+ programme.

The project supports parents in teaching their children about financial literacy. The project provides parents with attractive and entertaining teaching tools that children can use on their mobile phones. Teenagers like to spend time on their mobile phones, and successful teaching materials need to adapt to this. The project team has developed 32 educational tools for teenagers aged 13 to 19. These 32 learning tools consist of 8 videos, 8 WebQuests, 8 breakout rooms and 8 quizzes. The teaching tools cover the following 8 financial education topics: 1. money and its importance in daily life 2. budgeting and personal financial management 3. financial maths 4. income and earning money 5. spending money 6. saving money 7. borrowing money 8. the importance of financial knowledge for independent living All of the engaging resources created are accessible via mobile phone, tablet and computer. To further increase the appeal to young people, the project team has created a dedicated infographic for each topic. Each infographic contains a QR code. Each QR code is assigned to exactly one of the 8 financial education topics.