GLASGOW secondary schools are set to receive copies of a book which has been backed by Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis.

Your Money Matters will be sent to at least 30 secondary schools in the city. Each school will receive 75 copies for the this term.

Your Money Matters is designed for S4 and S5 students but can be adapted for both younger and older students, and provides the essential knowledge, skills and attitudes towards money as they gain greater independence.

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By exploring a variety of themes around key topics such as saving, borrowing, security and fraud and the world of work, Your Money Matters will help students to become financially capable and learn to manage money successfully.

The high-quality 148-page textbook has been produced with support from Education Scotland. It is mapped to the Curriculum for Excellence and has been trialled with teachers and students. It is certified as a ‘Quality Mark’ resource, which is the UK’s only widely recognised accreditation system for financial education resources.

This follows the launch of the digital copies of the textbook and accompanying online teacher’s guide, which were made available free of charge by Young Money and Young Enterprise Scotland, the co-creators of these leading-edge learning materials.

Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert, made a personal donation to the project which was also funded by the Money and Pensions Service.

He said: “The pandemic has shown the lack of personal financial resilience and preparedness of the UK as a whole. Not all of that can be fixed by improving financial education, but a chunk of it can. Of course, we need to educate people of all ages, yet young people are professionals at learning, so if you want to break the cycle of debt and bad decisions, they’re the best place to start.

“I was one of those at the forefront of the campaign to get financial education of the curriculum in England in 2014, and we celebrated then thinking the job was done. We were wrong. Schools have struggled with resources and there’s been little teacher training. Something else was needed to make it easy for schools and teachers. So even though I questioned whether it’s right that a private individual should fund a textbook, no one else would do it, so I put pragmatics over politics and did it in 2018.

“I’m delighted that now we’ve proved the success of that book in England, the Money and Pensions Service has agreed to team up to provide this much-needed resource for Scotland – adding a rightful sense of officialdom to the whole project.”

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Allison Barnes, Scotland Manager at The Money and Pensions Service, added: “We know that learning about money when we’re young can have a direct impact on our ability to manage money later in life. However, only 45% of 7-17-year-olds in Scotland recall having had any financial education at school, which means too many young people are at risk of entering adulthood without being prepared for the money-related challenges that lie ahead.

“The launch of the Your Money Matters textbook in Scotland is a vital step towards equipping schools with the support they need to bring financial education to the forefront within the classroom and beyond. The financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic means that building money skills and confidence has never been more vital.

“The textbook forms part of a £2 million UK-wide package by the Money and Pensions Service to support the delivery of meaningful financial education, including to 150,000 more children growing up in Scotland by 2030. This commitment is one of the ways we are supporting children and young people as part of our UK strategy for financial wellbeing.”