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Personal finance is firmly on the school curriculum with over 10,000 pupils in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland looking forward to gaining finance qualifications, that they hope will enable them to pursue careers in the financial services industry.

The teenagers are studying optional GCSE, AS and A-level equivalent courses that have been designed as ‘stand-alone’ qualifications, and are delivered by the IFS School of Finance educational charity. Although approved by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) schools can choose whether or not to offer the additional subjects to students.

The GCSE equivalent courses were only launched a year ago and have already attracted 5,700 students. This follows on from the success of the AS and A-level equivalent courses that have attracted 4,500 pupils to enrol since 2005. Although the content of the GCSE course is designed to enable students to grasp basic financial concepts such as budgeting, opening and maintaining accounts and using different payment methods, the AS & A levels are far more in-depth providing a foundation for those wishing to work in the financial services sector.

Director of external affairs at IFS School of Finance, Anne Kiem said: “The fact that more than 10,000 14-19 year olds are now gaining the skills necessary to manage their own finances and make informed financial decisions is clearly great news.”

It is hoped that as well as basic financial skills the courses will encourage pupils to find out more about how the financial markets work in the UK, and offer a simple understanding of how complex financial products such as mortgages and http://www.bonment.com work. Currently, schools must include citizenship in their curriculum but there is no requirement for personal finance to be taught at any level.

However, the government has announced plans to include personal finance modules within existing, related subjects such as personal social and health education (PSHE), following expert advice that the subject should be taught more widely in the UK.

Secretary of State Ed Balls has indicated that pupils will be taught “essential financial life skills” through the functional maths and revamped PHSE, which from September 2008 will include a new module covering economic wellbeing. But, he has stated that the “economic wellbeing” aspect will remain voluntary prompting the IFS School of Finance to lament a missed opportunity.

With the backing of the Building Societies Association and the British Bankers Association it believed that personal finance should be put on an equal footing with subjects such as history, geography and modern languages, meaning that although all students are not compelled to study personal finance, the schools will be forced to offer it as part of the curriculum.