Many, however, are by no means adequately equipped to manage and understand financial concepts around their first employment opportunity.
Acknowledging this, charity Financial Basics Foundation is launching a new MoneyIQ video series, supported by Suncorp Bank, aimed at educating young people on everything they need to know when starting work.
Financial Basics Foundation CEO Katrina Samios says MoneyIQ is a collection of short animated videos, designed to provide information and stories and how-to explanations in an engaging, life-hardened, easy-to-understand way.
“So we break down concepts into two- to three-minute bite-sized pieces,” she tells EducationHQ.
“And the intention behind them is that they’re engaging, they’re colourful, and they use plain language.
“But the videos also give educators the opportunity to then take the conversation further and explore those concepts.”
While the basics are covered in the videos, they’re very much a starting point.
“We also give students the sites and the information where they can go and get greater detail on rights and responsibilities, on tax and superannuation and all those things that they might have questions about when they get their first job,” Samios says.
To celebrate the launch of the video series, Financial Basics Foundation is hosting a free webinar, titled Teen MoneyIQ: Earning, on Wednesday, December 4 at 7pm AEST time (8pm Vic, NSW, Tas).
Hosted by youth/teen advocate, author and podcaster Rebecca Sparrow, the interactive session is designed to equip young people with essential tips and insights.
The panel will include Samios, Sparrow and customer advocate from Suncorp Bank, Anna Hussey, who will be talking about some of the stories that she hears from young people on scams and protecting your information and keeping it private.
A teen and a parent will also be on hand giving insights into what they’ve experienced when starting work experience.
CEO Katrina Samios says topics in the free webinar for first-time workers will include obtaining a tax file number, understanding your pay slip, including tax deductions, knowing your workplace rights and responsibilities and recognising and avoiding job scams.
“We would encourage any young person who’s about to get their first job, or maybe is already in their first job and has some questions about those things, and any educator, and certainly any parent or carer, who wants to have these conversations and start to level up their own money IQ, as it were, so that they can start to impart that knowledge on their teams,” Samios says.
Covering all the questions that a young person might have, such as what they should expect, understanding their pay slip, how to open a bank account and get a tax file number, the event is scheduled for 45 minutes and is free of charge.
Financial Basics Foundation, which kicked off back in 2002, was the brainchild of John Pierce, a managing director and CEO of an ASX-listed debt collection agency.
Concerned by a lifetime of experience and stories of people who were on the receiving end of his services, and frustrated that nothing was formally taught in secondary schools on even the basics of personal finance, Pierce committed $1 million to set up the foundation.
While financial literacy content is included in the Australian curriculum, there remains no consistent delivery of how it is taught across the system.
A gateway to essential life skills, while many advocate financial literacy should be taught as a standalone subject in schools, with topics such as budgeting, saving and investing fundamental for young people’s future success, it’s an area that remains very much in the background of a crowded curriculum.
Samios says there are areas of excellence, and while many teachers want to provide their students with quality information, other higher curriculum priorities take precedence.
Thus, it remains difficult to dive indepth and create standalone, comprehensive lessons in financial literacy.
“Our resources are being used in nearly 2300 schools across Australia and we have 12,000 educators who are registered with us and accessing our resources, so we know that they want to teach it,” she shares.
“We’ve also just released a series of courses which we hope will fit in that wellbeing, pastoral care, life skills-type areas, rather than in the core subjects because we know it’s difficult to fit comprehensive financial literacy education in maths and the economics and business curriculum where it currently sits.”
Samios believes there’s definitely an increased recognition of this as a life skill that is critical.
“…and because of what can happen if there is financial illiteracy, I think there needs to be a shift where we are recognising that it’s important that ... every young person who leaves school has a base level understanding of some personal financial concepts – and that can only benefit everybody in society, really.”
To register for the free Teen MoneyIQ: Earning webinar on December 4 at 7pm (AEST), click here.
For further information on the research and resources provided by the Financial Basics Foundation, click here.
