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Warwickshire Pupils To Be Taught How to Handle Their Cash Thanks To Winning Bid

Young people in Warwickshire are to be taught how to handle their cash following a successful bid for funding from the newly created Financial Services Authority's (FSA) Innovation Fund.

Warwickshire County Council Trading Standards Service and North Warwickshire Citizens Advice Bureau teamed up to make the winning bid. The £20,000 award will be used to develop an Internet based financial capability learning tool for 6th form pupils and youth groups, which will be made available, free of charge to these groups.

Students will be taught about financial issues affecting their lives with the help of ‘talkingshop’, Trading Standards new and innovative interactive IT based consumer education tool that is already delivering consumer education directly in to the classroom in schools in Warwickshire and across the UK.

Mark Ryder, Divisional Officer from Warwickshire County Council’s Trading Standards Service said:

“We are pleased to be given this opportunity to work with colleagues at the CAB to raise the financial ability of young people. We have used the Talkingshop web based platform to deliver consumer education into the classroom with great success and are looking forward with the support of the FSA funding to providing innovative life skills training to young people in Warwickshire.”

North Warwickshire Citizens Advice Bureau manager Carol Musgrave added:

“We have been taking financial literacy projects out to members of the community for the last 3 years and feel that it is crucial to engage young people so that they can make informed decisions about financial matters and avoid the consequences of debt. The web based platform that Warwickshire Trading Standards have devised will allow us to deal with these issues in a format that young people find relevant and enjoyable.”

The project is one of twelve not for profit and community projects chosen from more than 350 applications which proposed new and innovative ways to tackle financial capability issues that could help people take control of their money.

Vernon Everitt, FSA’s Retail Themes Director, said:

"Funding these innovative ideas will enable organisations at the coalface to deal with issues like financial awareness and exclusion. The projects will help identify good practice which can then be shared to the benefit of more people across the UK.

"The submissions we received were excellent and choosing the final 12 was tough. We would like to thank all applicants for the quality of their suggestions."

Schools or youth groups requiring further information about talkingshop can contact Warwickshire County Council Trading Standards Service:

Tel: 01926 414040