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I have two daughters. One receives her month’s pocket money and manages it carefully, so that by the time she receives the next month’s instalment she still has a little left. This has enabled her to build up a little savings that she tops up with birthday/Christmas/holiday gifts from her grandparents.

Now, my other daughter has a different strategy. She receives her pocket money and has blown the lot within the first week and spends the rest of the month applying the ‘puppy-dog eyes’ trying to extract any extra funds she can out of her Mum and Dad!

Unfortunately, the worrying fact is, that it is my second daughter that appears to typify the lack of financial capabilities and knowledge of young people today.

According to a survey conducted by Barclays Bank and the charity Personal Finance Education Group (PFEG), 42% of under 25s could not interpret the difference between being in credit and overdrawn on a bank account statement, while more than a third did not know the correct meaning of APR, in relation to interest charges on loans or credit cards.

Another frightening statistic, highlighted by the survey, was that 13% of the young people that took part, did not know what an overdraft was, with 8% believing that it was a low-cost, one off loan from a bank.

The chief executive of PFEG commented by saying that “It is clear that many young people are entering adult life with dangerous gaps in their financial knowledge that could lead them into serious financial difficulty.” She continued by stating that “These findings underline the need for all schools to teach their pupils about personal finance, to equip them with the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to manage their money well.”

For the sixth year, between 9th - 15th June, PFEG are running their ‘My Money Week’ event, the aim of which is to enhance the financial capability of young people in both primary and secondary schools. The ‘My Money Week’ event is all about teachers inspiring young people to gain skills, knowledge and confidence in money matters, to allow them to become financially literate in order to thrive within our society.

‘Teachers Resources Support’ can assist teachers who are wishing to use this special week to highlight and teach financial capability to their learners by means of a number of high quality, engaging financial capability resources.

Team work is encouraged at many points within the resources and this potentially allows students’ presentation skills to be practised and developed, as well as providing a competitive element for some of the activities.

On the one hand, the lessons look at the important concepts of saving, investing and lending money and, on the other, borrowing money. Investing (and the relative risks) and interest rates are considered, and different sources of credit explored, with an indication of their relative costs.

All-in-all, the lessons provide learners with ample opportunities to gain broad financial skills and knowledge as it is fair to say that in recent years, with the much reported ‘age of austerity’, personal financial security and the managing of household bills has become increasingly more difficult and so it is it is crucial that young people receive good understanding and knowledge in the area of financial capability, as in the future, no one knows what financial burdens we may encounter.

The week from 3rd – 7th March sees the seventh annual National Apprenticeship Week taking place, which celebrates how apprenticeships can change the lives of young people positively, particularly those that may not be academically orientated and, at the same time, benefit businesses and the economy.

National Apprenticeship week focuses on four themes, which are the main motivators for taking up Apprenticeships and defines a new era for them. For employers, they are:

• Quality – Apprenticeships are of a high standard and quality assured
• Growth – Apprenticeships create sustainable growth
• Pride – Where Apprenticeships engage in national awards and competitions they reward success
• Value – New funding and financial incentives are available for those organisations who take on apprentices

For young people, they are:

• Quality – Apprenticeships lead to excellent careers that have real progression pathways.
• Growth – Apprenticeships offer genuine personal development with over 250 skills and industries to choose from.
• Pride – Where Apprenticeships engage in national awards and competitions apprentices are recognised and rewarded for their success.
• Value – Apprentices get paid whilst attaining nationally recognised qualifications and work experience.

To assist teachers in drawing their students’ attention to National Apprenticeship Week and to apprenticeships in general, Teaching Resources UK have a number of lesson and assembly resources that teachers can use. These include:

• Work-related learning- these are a large collection of key stage 3 and 4 lesson resources highlighting a myriad of different aspects of the working and the workplace including titles such as:

o KS4 Behaviour in the workplace
o KS3 Work and wages
o KS4 How businesses work

• Enterprise - these are another large range of excellent lesson and assembly plans focusing on the concepts of success and failure of entrepreneurial ides. Titles include:

o KS3 What is enterprise?
o KS3 Economic ideas
o KS4 Financial risks in business

All these resources can assist educators in giving students a better idea of different aspects of the world of work and with the added focus of National Apprenticeship Week they will prove helpful and equip students with the information that will allow them to consider what areas of industry or business that they may wish to develop their careers in and what pathways they may wish to follow into those respective careers.

In the week between 3rd and 9th March, Britain’s biggest climate change campaign takes place, which hopes to ‘inspire a new wave of action to create a sustainable future’. Every year, 3000 events organised by schools, businesses, charities and councils are attended by up to half a million people hoping push the issue of climate change to the forefront of our minds. The organisers of ‘Climate Week’ want different groups and organisations to start planning events, no matter how small, in order to support the campaign.

This is a great opportunity to bring to the attention of your students issues and topics associated with climate change, conservation issues, conservation volunteering and sustainability. In order to help you deliver these subject areas, Teaching Resources UK offer some fantastic lesson resources and assembly plans appropriate for both key stage 3 and 4 students which are thought-provoking and engaging. They include:

• Climate Change Assembly - this is an excellent assembly plan that aims to clarify what is meant by climate change and to teach students about the disasters that have occurred already and whether they were as a result of a changing climate. The teaching resources include an assembly script and a PowerPoint presentation to aid the assembly.

• Conservation Volunteering Lesson - in this lesson students focus on their local and immediate environment, and how they might be able to improve it through the use of group work and worksheets.

• Conservation Issues Lesson - this lesson focuses on what exactly conservation means. Students investigate the major conservation issues using online, guided research, worksheets and group work.

• Sustainability Lesson – here your pupils will develop a better understanding of global warming and research issue of cause and effect. Students are encouraged to reflect on how changes can be made on a daily basis with regards to providing sustainability within environments.

The assembly and lesson plans are perfect for supporting climate week by introducing and explaining the complex and sometimes controversial issues and topic areas associated with climate change. Your students will then be interested and feel engaged and wish to contribute to the discussion and debate.