Financial Services Practitioner Panel calls for financial education to be added to national curriculum

The government has been urged to add financial education to the national curriculum to improve the skill levels of City job candidates.

Financial sector experts said that the subject should be put on equal footing with geography and modern languages in schools.

The Financial Services Practitioner Panel said in its 2006-07 annual report: “The Panel has always felt that the most effective way to make significant progress on financial capability would be through appropriate amendments to the national curriculum – a point it put strongly to the economic secretary to the Treasury, Ed Balls, when it met with him in early 2007.”

Financial education charity the IFS School of Finance backed the call, saying financial competence was a vital life skill.

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Anne Kiem, IFS director of external affairs, said: “We are pleased that the Financial Services Practitioner Panel has called for financial education to become part of the national curriculum.

“Raising the status of the subject in this way would lead to a step change in the number of young people leaving school equipped to make informed financial decisions.”