Financial Education Volunteers – in Scotland

Some members have expressed a desire for the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) to help facilitate opportunities for members to provide financial education in schools.  A pilot scheme is therefore being run in Scotland. 

If you are a member of the IFoA and live and/or work in Scotland, please consider volunteering to share your knowledge of finance with young people in Scotland’s schools. 

The Financial Education Partnership: 

We have teamed up with the Financial Education Partnership (FEP) which is administered by the Chartered Banker Institute, and is an initiative shared by a number of organisations, all of whom are dedicated to providing financial education for young people today.  Through the FEP, volunteers deliver workshops on financial capability and a range of other topics, to secondary and primary pupils in schools throughout Scotland. 

The FEP delivers a full programme and is always looking to recruit more facilitators to volunteer their time to go out to the schools and deliver these pre-prepared workshops.

Success: 

In the last academic year, FEP volunteers visited 124 schools in Scotland and delivered 682 workshops reaching an estimated 24,000 primary and secondary pupils Scotland-wide.  Without the volunteers, none of this would have been possible. 

Training and Materials: 

As a volunteer facilitator, the FEP would provide all the workshop materials to you and also provides regular training courses including presentation skills training for volunteers who have never done any presentation work before.  As part of the training, they cover all the workshop materials, and how to deliver in schools. 

Topics: 

The materials cover a range of topics from money management and budgeting to team working and interview skills, volunteers sign up to help students make the transition from school to the workplace, but also to ensure that pupils leave with the ability to make informed, financial decisions throughout their adult life.

8 different workshops are offered.  View details of the Managing your Money workshop material. 

Time Commitment: 

Whilst it is hoped volunteers will deliver at least three workshops per year, there are no set number of workshops you are required to deliver, you can do as many as you wish.  The required time commitment from volunteers would generally be anything from two days per year upward, depending on the level of involvement.  This could be broken down as: 

• Attending a full day training course on the workshop material, with options to attend other courses if desired (one day)  
• Attend a real classroom workshop as an observer (one hour plus travel)
• Deliver at least three classroom workshops per year (one hour per workshop plus travel).

If you are interested in finding out more, and in volunteering to provide assistance, please contact Debbie Atkins, Head of Volunteer Engagement.  When contacting Debbie please provide a note of your ARN.  Debbie will put you in touch with Chris Finlay at the Chartered Banker Institute.