Financial Literacy amongst young people – what does the latest data tell us and what more do we need to know?

For this event we welcomed two speakers to discuss financial literacy amongst young people. The event is now also available to watch online.  

Adele Atkinson, Senior Policy Analyst in the Financial Education and Financial Consumer Protection unit of the OECD

Adele Atkinson discussed evidence from the latest OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test of financial literacy, fielded in 2015 and newly released in May 2017. This is the second time that financial literacy has been offered as an option to countries participating in the main PISA study; a previous assessment took place in 2012, and plans for the next one, in 2018 are already underway. Some 48,000 15‑year-olds took part in the test (although the UK did not participate). The assessment looked at the knowledge and skills of teenagers regarding money matters and personal finance, covering issues such as dealing with bank accounts and debit cards, or understanding interest rates on a loan or mobile payment plan. Adele will focus on the policy implications of the latest findings, and highlight some of the approaches taken in countries with higher than average scores.

Ann Griffiths, Policy Manager – Children and Young People at the Money Advice Service

Ann Griffiths responded to Adele’s presentation focusing on the UK picture of young people’s financial capability that relates to that presented from the PISA analysis. This included recently published CYP financial capability survey results detailing MAS’s assessment of the state of young people’s financial capability in the UK at present. She also discussed initial findings from analysis of the BCS70 specifically addressing links between childhood skills and long term financial outcomes, and will detail emerging work MAS are undertaking on what makes some young people particularly vulnerable in this area. Her talk also provided updates on evaluation support and where evaluation of financial interventions for young people is heading in the UK. Finally she highlighted important research gaps that need to be filled to expand our understanding of this vital area.

View a video of our two presenters summarising their talks below: