Workshop 4 "Can Financial Education Succeed? The Limits of Education as a Solution to Overindebtedness" a case study by Anne Schelhowe Anne Schelhowe from the institute for financial services based in Hamburg, explains her practical experience of school curricula and financial literacy of teenage school kids in Germany THE SCHÜLERBANKING CASE STUDY The objective of the learning project SchülerBanking developed by the institut für finanzdi-entsleistugnen (iff) is the sustainable promotion of skills in dealing with money and financial services and support for the development of basic skills in transactions in this area. School-children are enabled to weigh up their own situation and make adequate and productive de-cisions in their own interests through SchülerBanking. They learn to evaluate the costs and benefits, risks and opportunities offered by financial services, to assess their situation as a whole and to use advice appropriately. They develop into mature consumers capable of rep-resenting their own interests with confidence. Schoolchildren overcome anxieties about en-tering banks and learn to be confident and critical when asking for important information. They also gain training in key areas such as presentation skills, communication skills and teamwork. In the context of SchülerBanking, schoolchildren are introduced to financial issues effort-lessly through role play and advice sessions with Haspa youth-workers. Case studies de-scribe typical situations involving young people. On the basis of the roles described, the schoolchildren develop independent questions in study groups, which they put to advisers in Haspa (Hamburger Sparkasse) branches. The advice sessions are thoroughly prepared and reviewed in class. Practical cases and products provide the basis for developing an under-standing of the principles involved and the ability to acquire business knowledge. The project is delivered to schools in the form of modules (Giro Basis, Giro Plus, Kredit Basis and Kredit Plus). In the Giro Basis module, the children effortlessly learn the salient features of a current ac-count from case studies, information materials and their own research. The case studies portray young people who are still minors with varying interests. They all want to take on a part-time job and need to “transport” their first earnings. They therefore face the need to choose and open a current account. The children use case studies to pre-pare for discussions at Haspa, which they then evaluate. They learn that the primary function of a current account is the transportation of money and the ways in which that transportation can be carried out (transfers, standing orders, etc). They develop criteria for choosing a current account and learn to choose one based on their individual, specific needs. In addition to the contents of the module Giro Basis, the children deal with the causes of fi-nancial crises and the identification of solutions in the Giro Plus module. The stories of the people featuring in the case studies in the first stage of the module, who are deciding on a particular current account, are developed further in a second stage. The young people in the case studies then overdraw on their current account as a result of vari-ous events and find themselves in a financial crisis. The children analyse the family circumstances of the person featured in the case study in this module and consider possible solutions. They also even have the opportunity of taking ad-vice from Haspa experts. The children learn the potential consequences of overindebtedness and what is available in terms of independent advice. The schoolchildren learn that capital is not available free of charge from external sources and that the cost of (overdraft) credit relates to the time factor. The awareness is central that a financial decision must always be taken against a background of their own situation. In the Kredit Basis module the children look at the various forms of credit and their character-istics. In the case studies they work on, young people feature who have reached the age of majority and intend to use credit for something they want. The children familiarise themselves in class with the basic concepts of credit and prepare for credit advice sessions with Haspa. They are given various fictitious options of instalment credit. The children develop criteria for choosing credit and, through games, learn the relationship between the duration of a loan, the effective rate of interest and the total costs arising from it. In addition, the schoolchildren develop a feeling for the costs involved in an everyday household budget. They learn to compare dif-ferent credit products and to choose credit to suit their circumstances and needs. The main learning objective of the module is an understanding of the relationship between money and time. In addition to the contents of the Kredit Basis module, the children look at the causes of fi-nancial crises and problem solving in the “Plus-Modul“. The individual learning modules are adapted both to week-long projects and to the regular teaching curriculum. Following a pilot phase, in which the project was tested in 10 schools and very positively evaluated by teachers and children, the project will be implemented in Hamburg in the first school half-year of 2006 in 60 classes with over 1,400 children. ID: 37223 Author(s): iff Publication date: 28/04/06

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Created: 13/04/06. Last changed: 13/04/06.
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