On 19 June, 21 students from City & Islington College and Barking & Dagenham College visited the Financial Times’ office in London for a financial literacy workshop facilitated by FLIC – the Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign. Here’s what they learnt from the day.
Jaqui Dobson, D&I Partner at the FT, first gave the students an overview of the Financial Times and an insight into what a career there could look like.
“I found the visit to the Financial Times really useful, especially discovering that there’s a variety of non-journalistic roles available for young people. I also was able to undertake some interesting exercises around budgeting and becoming financially independent.” City & Islington College student.
FLIC’s workshop was centred around mastering your money – covering everything from reading a payslip to budgeting and student finance. For many of the students, it was the first time they’d been given advice and guidance about key skills like budgeting.
“Learning how to budget is so important and we aren’t taught to think ahead – but now I feel like I know where to start. Before I had no clue how to handle things like this, but now I know how to approach this stuff.” City & Islington College student.
“The workshop shed a lot of light on how you can approach budgeting. It’s definitely helped me – I had no idea how to sort out finances before but now I feel like I have more of a handle on it.” Barking & Dagenham College student.
Aimee Allam, CEO of FLIC, reflected on why she feels financial literacy is so important to teach our young people.
“Solid financial literacy can help level the playing field for young people and make sure that all, not just those who come from an advantage, can both protect and grow their money right from the start of their earning life.”
And as young people up and down the country completed their paid internships this summer, learning how to read a payslip was particularly useful for the students.
“I really liked the way they broke down the terminology of a payslip, like gross pay and net pay. You don’t get taught those things at school. Knowledge about these things makes you more aware, and if something does go wrong in the future, now I feel like I can pull it up.” City & Islington student.
For those considering the university route, FLIC also covered student finance and gave the students an insight into the financial aspect of studying in higher education.
“I found the part with university costs and student finance useful – if we do want to go to uni or move out, it feels like I could actually budget now and learn how to save.” Barking and Dagenham student.
Chantelle, who delivered the workshop to students, reflected on what they learnt in the session.
“We have seen great engagement and impact from young people throughout the workshop. They are always taken aback by the ‘actual cost of living’ but always feedback that the session gives them realistic expectations to work towards, with lots of new knowledge – almost 50% of students intended to create a budget. We also saw student’s confidence in their ability to budget increase by over 40%.”
