Teaching adults financial literacy may be accomplished effectively by following a set of proven guidelines, as is illustrated in the example that follows:

Jason Armundsen, Production Manager at Western Widgets, had been assigned a new task: to increase productivity among the company’s warehouse workers. Jason suspected that, if he could find out how to teach financial literacy to adults, increased productivity would follow. He held this belief because he had talked informally with many of the warehouse employees, and had learned that they were living paycheck-to-paycheck – and some of them were carrying heavy debt loads. Jason became determined. He would find a way to teach financial literacy to adults, and address the employees’ personal finance problems that were contributing to low productivity.

Jason’s plan for teaching adults financial literacy began to take shape as he clarified his goals. First, he would address the employees’ most pressing needs for budgeting skills and debt reduction. Then, later on, he could expand the programming to cover more topics of import to the warehouse workers, such as retirement contributions and planning. Jason received permission from his supervisor to begin developing a program to start teaching financial literacy for the initial instruction. He thought a reasonable goal would be for the warehouse workers to reach Level 2 on Webb’s Depth of Knowledge scale, that is, being able to recall and connect information to solving their own personal finance problems.

Jason had obtained a clear understanding of his objectives to teach financial literacy to adults, both for the near-term and later on. Now he could zero in on choosing delivery methods. How to pace the instruction? Jason thought self-paced teaching might work well, since the employees were at several different knowledge levels. How to deliver the materials? Getting all the employees together might pose a challenge, because they worked various shifts. Jason decided online delivery might be a viable option if the employees could get reinforcement for completing lessons.

Mr. Armundsen had already identified the initial topics of interest to his audience – budgeting and debt reduction. He selected these topics as the first lessons to present as he moved down the checklist of how to teach financial literacy to adults. By focusing on subjects that specifically addressed the employees’ urgent needs, Jason would meet his learning outcomes and ultimately boost employee productivity.

Jason had no background in either money management or education, so his next challenge on the road to teaching adults financial literacy was locating a qualified educator. The person he chose would need high levels of both pedagogical and content knowledge. Jason was fortunate to find a Certified Financial Education Instructor – graduate of the NFEC that earned his financial literacy certification -who was available in his city. This educator was highly-skilled, field-tested, and compliant with national standards required to teach financial literacy to adults.

What was next on the path toward how to teach financial literacy to adults? The financial literacy lesson plans for adults Jason would draw upon for the activities. He needed a package designed to be flexible and that could be adapted to the technology-based delivery he had selected. In consultation with the CFEI, Jason located a curriculum that had a modular design and engaging, interactive activities that lent themselves well to online delivery.

Jason offered the first two instructional modules to all 142 of the warehouse employees at Western Widgets, and 137 (96.4%) completed at least one of the two lessons. After completing the modules, 100 out of the 137 (73%) reported having created a personal budget, and 48 (35%) reported implementing a debt reduction strategy. Over the longer-term, Jason also conducted productivity measures, and discovered that the company had realized a 22% increase in productivity among the warehouse workers over the three months following the lessons. He reported these highly positive results to his supervisor.