NYA Update: Early success story for youth financial capability project

Sophie Probert, 18, from Mackworth, Derby, uses her mobile phone to communicate with her deaf parents by text but she was threatened with being cut off after running up phone bills of £400.

The Barclays Money Skills "champions" project, which is run by Barclays, the National Youth Agency and a number of leading youth charities, helped Sophie get her house in order – literally – because she’s also now living in her own home and paying her own bills.

The project is designed to build the financial skills of young people who are not in education, employment or training, and equip them with the tools to share this information with their peer group.

Like many young people, Sophie lacked confidence managing her money, and when she got into debt with her mobile phone company, she was threatened with being cut off and losing her mobile phone.

When Sophie heard about the programme from Rathbone she could immediately identify how it could help her, and her friends, to manage their money. Sophie was one of the first young people to receive the Barclays Money Skills champions training.

The project is led locally by support workers who train the young people they work with to become champions. Support workers receive two days of comprehensive training, as well as funding, resources and ongoing support to help them deliver the project. Through this model, Barclays aims to train 5,000 young people nationwide as champions and equip them with the skills to pass on financial capability knowledge to up to 100,000 of their friends and peers.

Linda Owen, a support worker at Rathbone who worked with Sophie, said: "Not only is this an amazing opportunity for young people to gain skills in money management, it also helps to improve their confidence, communication skills and CVs, and to open up the chance for them to educate others.

"I have watched Sophie’s confidence grow throughout the training, and she is now putting money away every month as well as keeping on top of her bills. Now she is interested in helping to train the next lot of champions and develop her sign language skills, so that she can specialise in supporting deaf people."

Linda believes that peer education can be a highly effective way to build the financial skills of young people: "Young people are much more likely to take advice from their peers.

It’s less intimidating and they find it easier to relate. So providing young people with the skills to pass on
the knowledge makes perfect sense."

• Read more at: www.barclaysmoneyskills.com