Are you financially capable? Do you know your APR from your Dirt? The so-called Financial Competency Framework enumerates the basic elements of financial education over four levels, from early primary level to late second-level.
The four levels could equally be applied to an adult education course. Each level covers 18 different areas of financial education, from knowledge of financial products to the ability to negotiate on your own behalf.
At the first level, learners are taught what saving is, how to recognise notes and coins and to “explore the difference between a need and a want”.
Pensions, credit and inflation all feature in level 2, where learners are also taught to “understand that some things are ‘too good to be true’”.
Level 3 learners grapple with the complexities of insurance, the tax system and risk.
At the top level, participants learn that marriage and civil partnership arrangements have financial consequences.