Financial education training for teachers

THE teaching faculty of the Kamaliki Technical Vocational Education Training Institute were last week trained in a five-day series of workshops to develop their capacity to deliver an embedded financial education curriculum to their
vocational students from September.
The objective of the inaugural teacher training workshop is to equip teachers with the understanding and skills to deliver financial education within their individual trade courses. The training covered the four key learning areas of financial planning, cash flow and budgeting, saving & and debt management and investment, banking and insurance.  An additional series of teacher training workshops is expected to start in August.
At Kamaliki Tvet, financial education is viewed as the process of learning by which individually and indirectly their families are enabled to efficiently manage personal finances and to become informed consumers of financial products and services.
Teacher familiarisation and training on financial education is a vital part of a FinEd Project by PFIP which commenced with the endorsement of a Letter of Exchange in March this year.
Kamaliki is the first technical and vocational institute in Papua New Guinea, which PFIP has begun work with on financial education.
There are plans to identify a further Tvet Institute to partner with on Financial Education by December.
Opening the training last Monday, provincial Tvet education adviser Yausi Yahimeniko said that having the skills and knowledge to plan financially and manage money for today, tomorrow and into the future was important.
“Our students and our community will benefit from this financial education programme at Kamaliki Tvet. Having the skills and knowledge to better our lives through money management will have wide-reaching impacts on our students, ourselves, our families and our communities. As the conduits of knowledge and learning, our teachers are vital in the success of the programme.”
Yahimeniko said the Eastern Highlands provincial education office was supportive of the FinEd Project and extended his appreciation to the Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme and their partners, Basix Consulting for continuing to drive financial education at Kamaliki Tvet Institute.
It is expected that from the 2018 school year, financial education will be firmly embedded within the institution’s curriculum, ensuring that approximately 1000 students will gain exposure to personal money management and investment in existing trade courses on an annual basis.
The FinEd project being introduced into Tvet courses was developed in response to the findings of the Financial Competency Surveys commissioned by PFIP in 2013.
The surveys found that most low-income households in the Pacific were unable to undertake money management tasks and financial services activities they consider necessary.
It is hoped that through these courses, young women and men will develop the essential financial knowledge, skills and confidence to be able to make responsible financial decisions
Funded by the European Union, this initiative is a result of the 2020 Money Pacific Goals endorsed by PNG in 2009 and Maya Declaration commitments made in 2013.
Financial education and financial literacy are joint national priority areas identified within the National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2016-2020 launched by the Bank of  PNG in Dec 2016. – UN News Centre.