Annex I

Financial Literacy

Financial Literacy

"The knowledge, skills and attitude necessary to become a questioning and in formed consumer of financial services and the ability to manage one's finances effectively. Financial literacy can be divided into three interrelated themes."

  • Davies argues that financial literacy can be divided into three interrelated themes:
    • Knowledge and understanding - familiarity with a range of concepts such as money, credit and investment
    • Skills and competence - budgeting, financial planning and personal risk management
    • Attitudes - taking responsibility for the wider impact and implications for money and financial decisions on individuals, business and the community.
  • These themes can be supported through activities in a number of curriculum areas. The White Paper "14-19 Education and Skills", stresses the importance of personal finance education and argues that maths, PHSE, citizenship, business studies and careers education all offer opportunities for exploring and improving young people's understanding of financial issues.
  • And we know that young people welcome support in this area. Recent studies show that 98% of teenagers consider it valuable to learn about managing their money.
  • Further information to support Financial Literacy training can be found at:

Business and Economic Understanding

Business and Economic Understanding

"A process of enquiry, focussed on the context of business, central to which is the idea that resources are scarce so that choices have to be made between alternative uses."

  • Davies argues that the Business and Economic Understanding consists of:
    • Knowledge and understanding - familiarity with a range of economic concepts such as the market, competition, price efficiency and economic growth
    • Skills - the ability to take decisions and make judgments on issues with an economic dimension, investigate simple hypotheses and apply theoretical understanding to practical situations
    • Attitudes - an interest and concern in economic affairs, responsible use of resources, challenges of business and its importance to society, responsibility of employers to the community and the environment.
  • Business and Economic Understanding is included within the core subjects "Personal, Social and Health Education" (PSHE) and "Citizenship" at Key Stages 3 and 4. The "Citizenship" curriculum covers the rights and responsibilities of consumers. It teaches them about our economy and democratic institutions and values.
  • Like Financial Literacy, Economic and Business Understanding requires a strong knowledge base. Work related activities are often an effective vehicle for delivering this underpinning knowledge as activities can be structured to provide a general introduction to industry and to the ways in which work tends to be organised.
  • Effective education business links can also help with the development of the "attitudes" identified by Davies. A "real" example of how a company is facing up to its challenges, how it manages its resources, and its importance to the community in which it is situated, can bring to life issues which might otherwise, for many children, seem quite dull.

Enterprise Capability

Enterprise Capability

"The capability to handle uncertainty and respond positively to change, to create and implement new ideas and new ways of doing things, to make reasonable risk/reward assessments and act upon them in one's personal and working life."

  • Davies identifies the components of Enterprise Capability as being:
    • Skills - decision making (particularly under conditions of uncertainty), personal and social, leadership, risk-management, presentational
    • Attitudes - self reliance, open-mindedness, respect for evidence, pragmatism, commitment to making a difference
    • Qualities- adaptability, perseverance, determination, flexibility, creativeness, improvisation, confidence, initiative, self-confidence, autonomy, action-orientation.
  • Enterprise Capability, unlike Financial Control and Business and Economic Understanding, therefore does not have a clearly defined knowledge base. It is about skills and attitudes and young people s approach to problems.
  • Some of these skills (e.g. presentation skills) can be provided through "traditional" approaches to teaching and leaming. But others, particularly attributes like "creativeness" and "adaptability" are less amenable to conventional teaching. For many young people these skills/attitudes/qualities will be best assessed and developed through learning environments which give them a greater degree of autonomy and freedom in their activities. (If young people are to develop and demonstrate enterprise skills they need the freedom to behave enterprisingly.)

In the most effective schools, teaching and learning were characterised by clearly defined aims and objectives, pupils taking responsibility for their own actions and being given significant autonomy to tackle relevant problems. Enterprise learning also involved pupils evaluating the outcomes of their decisions and reflecting on what they had learned. The least effective schools failed to recognise that enterprise education had important implications for teaching and learning styles.
Ofsted

 

Enterprise Education