You’ll Be Shocked at the Far-Reaching Impact of a Basic Financial Education
IF you realize the critical importance of a basic financial education, it’s time to take action. Whether you want to improve your own personal financial literacy or you want to help others, this is the perfect place for you. We have everything you need to focus your passion on dramatically improving people’s lives.
The NFEC offers resources and support for you to learn about financial literacy and to teach others in your own basic financial educational program.
Inception of a Beyond Basic Financial Education Program for Adults
Bill, a retirement planner, saw a need among older adults for a deeper understanding of personal money management that went beyond just basic financial education. He understood the benefits of financial education and wanted to take adults to the next level of financial literacy but needed more definition.
He started by sending a survey to his past and present clients and discovered that there is a definite demand.
Defining the Learning Goals Beyond Basic Financial Education
Bill wanted to bring his students all the way to the level of extended thinking about different aspects of personal finance, but due to time and budgeting constraints, would be happy if he could get them to think strategically. Furthering their education beyond this initial class might be an opportunity to offer continuing education.
How to Deliver a Basic Financial Education to Adults
Bill wanted to offer his adult financial education program to people nation-wide and even around the world. He decided on a self-paced structure with built-in incentives to advance. This way, everyone could progress as they saw fit. A live webinar would allow attendees to ask questions while the recordings would be available on-demand.
Subject Matter for an Advanced Financial Education
The next step was to determine what financial subjects his audience would most benefit from. The survey revealed that they had a basic financial education and wanted to learn more about investing, risk management and retirement planning. This would offer the flexibility to address many age groups with a diverse background.
Structuring the Curriculum for Adults Who Know Basic Personal Finance
Advanced Personal Finance must be directly relatable to the real world, in a manner that incentivizes real-world implementation. This would keep it engaging for all adult age groups. It also had to meet the core educational requirements of a financial education program. A flexible, modular design would allow the students to dive deep into their specific topics of interest.
Finding a Basic Financial Educator for Adults
Although he had informally taught his clients about a narrow field of personal finance, he did not want to try to teach his first class. He had to find an NFEC certified financial literacy instructor who would speak to adults at their level of understanding and bring in financial education curriculum. This would allow him to watch and learn while facilitating his first beyond basic financial education class.
Results of the Beyond Basic Financial Education Adult Course
At the end of the program, 34 of the original 40 students completed the course successfully. That’s an 85% completion rate.
Bill compiled the data into a report highlighting his success, which he would use to promote his program and possibly get funding for expansion.
Beyond Advanced Financial Education
Bill printed Certificates of Completion for the students that completed the financial literacy 101 course to use in getting a job or furthering their education, he realized that his students would benefit from continued support, so he kept the Facebook group open for the class to interact and support each other. He also offered weekly lessons via email.
Bill knew this was just the beginning of what he wanted to accomplish. He felt so good about the results, he wanted to help more people in different ways.