Designing Financial Education Courses with High Impact
Many people, when they set out to design financial education courses, are at a loss where to start. Fortunately, the National Financial Educators Council has done the work for you. Regardless your specific audience and needs, the NFEC has developed the following how-to guide for creating a program that really works.
Take a Practical Approach to Developing Financial Education
Here’s an illustration of a would-be financial educator who followed the NFEC’s recommended steps to create financial education courses to take advantage of best practices for development.
Carson works as an activities director at his local YMCA, coordinating a group of employees and volunteers who carry out community events. He’s heard from several group members who think there’s a need in the community for financial education. Carson felt that money management training would be a natural extension of the YMCA’s commitment to promoting fitness, so he decided to explore what it would take to start a financial literacy program effort. First, he needed to gather some key information about the audience and the topics they would find most beneficial.
Carson sent out a brief online survey to the YMCA membership, and discovered that many members had a strong interest in learning more about retirement planning.
Clarify Goals to Develop Effective Financial Education Courses
Choosing How to Deliver Financial Programs
Honing Down the Program Focus
The next step down the program development path was for Carson to focus the education on a manageable set of topics. Retirement planning was the overarching subject, but Carson perceived that the members would benefit most from a financial literacy class focus specifically on choosing between available retirement vehicles.
Who Will Deliver the Programming?
Carson’s next decision was who to select as an instructor for his live financial literacy events. He needed an educator with excellent presentation skills, relatability, and a strong knowledge base in the topic area of focus. Carson researched his community and found a Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI) who had been qualified by the NFEC to teach financial education courses with maximum effectiveness.
Selecting a Format for the Financial Education Courses
Quantifying Program Success
Carson gathered detailed data from the 37 YMCA members who participated in the first round of workshops, so he could quantify how well the program worked using an evaluation toolkit. He learned that the average gain in knowledge about retirement planning was 23%, an excellent accomplishment for his first effort. Carson used these data to compile an attractive report which he distributed via email to the whole YMCA membership, to help draw more attendees to the next workshop series.