Guide to Developing an Engaging Personal Finance Class in College
Are you online, after having spent a lot of time planning your own personal finance class in college? Well, you have arrived at the right spot! Our dedicated team has spent a substantial amount of time developing this guide for professionals who work in college environments, and we will show you the road to success in planning your program.
When a Personal Finance Class in College is Needed
Success: A Practical, Winning Example
Below, in the scenario that follows, you will get to read all about how a professional sought some much-needed help and succeeded in developing their very own personal finance class in college:
Ollie works for a university outreach program that sends private tutors to high school students around the Boston area, and he currently supervises 17 tutors – all of whom are university students. After noticing that multiple tutors on his team had come up to him with some money management-related questions, he realized that he should start to plan a financial literacy workshop for college students. He was confident in his knowledge on the subject, and he was quite familiar with his audience of college-aged tutors, but he realized that he would need to get some help for this endeavor.
After he performed a bit of a sample survey with a handful of his tutoring team members, he immediately realized that pretty much the entire group had little to no knowledge when it came to personal finance.
Objectives for a Personal Finance Class in College
Ollie’s short-term goal was to bestow upon this group some well-rounded exposure to very important personal finance principles that could help them in their own financial lives right now. Since the group of tutors had a limited amount of free time that worked around their class schedules, he knew they’d all only be able to participate in the course outlined in his financial literacy workshop for college students for no more than two hours per week. That’s why Ollie was fine with condensing down a program to focus on just the basics.
With this first experience, his final goal was for his team members to achieve the “Skills and Concepts” level of understanding on the topic of personal finance.
Keys in the Ignition
After Ollie had mentally outlined his practical objectives, he then needed to divert his attention to which type of delivery method he would make use of for this first personal finance class in college. This group of tutors had class and work schedules that overlapped, so he knew that an internet-based, self-paced course would be the ideal type of class offering.
Focus: Financial Literacy Workshop for College Students
At that point in his journey toward building a successful workshop, Ollie just needed to narrow down the main focus of the first one he was planning. This group was made up of young, high-energy university students, so he decided to focus the class on establishing healthy spending habits and student loans.
Embrace Asking for Help
After that, Ollie needed to reach out to a qualified educator for some help in presenting the vital resources contained within his financial literacy workshop for college students. The professional which he sought would have to possess both robust knowledge on money management principles, as well as excellent teaching skills from past education experience.
At the end of the day, the educator Ollie decided to go with was a proactive NFEC Certified Financial Education Instructor.
Getting Down to Your Format
Ollie’s goal was to design a personal finance class in college that would still be a winner, even with the problems he faced with the group’s overlapping schedules. With that thought, he decided to make sure to build a course that would be divided into smaller, digestible modules that can be completed whenever the tutors had disposable time.
Let the Data Do the Talking
Of the 17 tutors who participated in the first of Ollie’s personal finance class in college, 15 managed to complete the entire program alongside a 13% improvement rate, on average. Ollie’s next move was to put together the resulting data and craft a visual report so that he could demonstrate to his supervisors that his effort had been a hit.
Advancing Forward
Ollie knew that this group would need ongoing support into the future if they were ever going to be able to truly apply everything they had learned in their first personal finance educational experience. As the course came to an end, he sent them all congratulatory emails to let them know how impressed he was with the group.
He ended up choosing to help these tutors further. Once per month, he would begin offering a follow-up financial literacy workshop for college students that they could participate in. That way, the tutors would be able to more easily maintain everything they just absorbed about money management.
The current economic climate, along with the rising student debt problem, make a personal finance class in college more and more worthwhile. In the articles that follow, we indicate how financial literacy programs for youth consumption might be conceived, from choosing the best topics to ensuring that the coursework takes into consideration all the elements that affect the financial skills of college-age youth.
Issues to Cover in a Financial Literacy Workshop for College Students
Those who seek to design a top-quality financial literacy workshop for college students are well-advised to make topical choices that focus on just-in-time life skills that this audience will find particularly relevant. The three workshop themes we recommend are college funding, striking out on your own, and post-college life planning.
When you’re targeting youth and young adults preparing for college, keep in mind that they need to consider all the possibilities to pay for their schooling, beyond going the “easy” route of taking out student loans. The workshop might present scholarship opportunities, government granting vehicles, getting employed part-time, etc.
Striking out to live independently also resonates with college-age youth, and this theme dovetails nicely with developing a plan for life after graduation. These personal finance course workshops for college students might discuss how to set financial objectives, clarify and manage expenses, interpret the terms of one’s student loans, and set a strategy for loan repayment.
Life Aspects that Guide a Personal Finance Class in College
In recent years, government agencies have begun to call for mandatory financial education at the college level, says CNBC. However, there are several notable aspects of an average college student’s background that have distinct effects on their personal finance knowledge and abilities. It’s important to think through these facets when planning a financial literacy workshop for college students.
Aspect number one is the financial situation they experienced in their family home. For instance, whether their parents were of high or low SES makes a difference. As a family’s financial circumstances improve, so do the child’s chances of achieving upward mobility. College financial literacy programs will succeed if they appeal to youth from diverse foundations.
The second aspect concerns the financial behaviors among college students that have been shaped over the years according to the influences of parents, peers, environmental features, and – perhaps most of all – advertising. During the high school years, youth see innumerable advertisements which appeal to their psyches in ways that can lead to negative effects such as gender stereotyping, social apathy, and even depression.
A third aspect is the regrettable lack of financial education college students have received, and a fourth can be found in the negative emotional reactions many of them have toward fiscal matters. Teaching young adults about money realistically must take into account their emotional mindsets. And finally, many college students leave home without basic understanding of the management systems they need to get off on the right track toward financial wellness. All these features must be addressed for a personal finance class in college to achieve real success.
Do Vermont Students Need a Personal Finance Class in College?