Description of the programme
The My Money Now project, delivered by the National Youth Agency, was a financial education programme initiated to help young people aged 16-21 years to improve their knowledge about financial matters, and to help them make sound financial decisions in the future. To ensure that participants could benefit significantly from additional support, the project was designed to cater for young people who had started apprenticeships, had joined or been placed in employability programmes and/or were still in full-time vocational education.
The study
The programme delivered 61 training sessions to 591 young people. Of these sessions, 34 were delivered by peer educators and 27 were run by established trainers. Over 200 apprentices participated in the programme in 17 of the training centres. The majority of the remaining participants were on employability or vocational training programmes.
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Impact evaluation: to examine the extent of the success of the programme; whether they had developed the skills and knowledge intended; and if they felt that their newly acquired knowledge and ideas may change the way they interacted with and managed money in the future.
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Process evaluation: to assess whether the NYA’s preferred option of using peer educators to deliver the My Money Now programme made a tangible difference in terms of delivery of the curriculum; experience of participants; and the likelihood of changed attitudes and behaviours by participants.
The evaluation was designed to capture qualitative and quantitative data, including:
- Collection of quantitative data using pre and post intervention questionnaires.
- Assisting in the training of peer educators (and subsequently, four peer associates) in reflective practice and observational techniques, and to mentor peer educators before, during and after the process.
- Undertaking telephone interviews with up to 60 young people three weeks after they had been engaged in the programme to appraise the quality and efficacy of the training.
Key findings
The results from the evaluation indicate that the programme was successful in meeting its objectives.
- 92% of participants agreed or strongly agreed that the training was delivered at a good pace and delivery was clear.
- 84% agreed or strongly agreed that the programme improved awareness of money matters.
- 86% felt that the programme might help them to be able to plan for the future in a more positive way.
- 80% believed that the programme had made participants more aware of the risks of online fraud.
- 84% agreed or strongly agreed that the teamwork elements of the programme had helped them to understand financial issues better.
- 87% agreed that they had better technical understanding about standing orders and direct debits.
- 84% stated that they would be more careful now in the use of credit/debit cards.
- 84% agreed that they now felt it was important to discuss money issues more openly and felt that they would do this in future.
Looking at the differences by demographics and participant types:
- Participants on apprenticeships were much more likely to value the programme (79%) compared with those young people on employability or vocational courses (60%).
- There was no significant difference in the experience of young people who undertook the programme in a single day session, or where the programme was divided into two three-hour sessions on separate days.
- There were no differences by gender.
- Only 63% of 16-17 year olds rated the programme as its end 7 year olds rated the programme of participants to the
- Several respondents emphasised the value of the programme by mentioning concrete actions taken as a consequence of the programme. Many referred to their greater awareness of spending patterns and indicated that they were, in the short period of time following the programme, making some changes to the way that they consumed goods and services.
- Others stated that they had taken steps to set up bank accounts or saving accounts so that they could manage and secure their money more effectively.
Points to consider
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Methodological limitations: While the report makes mention of a control group of ‘different types of trainers’ (i.e. a quasi-experimental approach), there is no control group to benchmark the observed changes against (i.e. a group where there was no intervention).o The same material was delivered in the same sequence to all participants irrespective of their age or experience. Qualitative data analysis suggests that such an approach may not always be appropriate, and young people may require more in-depth or bespoke sessions focussing on specific issues.
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Generalisability/ transferability: The numbers of responses collected from surveys and feedback forms are adequate for basic quantitative analysis, but they are not weighted to be representative of the general population.o This research was only undertaken in England, not in the rest of the UK.
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Relevance: This report is relevant to all stakeholders and policymakers with an interest in evaluating financial education programmes among young people.
Full report
Evaluation of My Money Now - full report
