Speaking at the launch of the Personal Finance Education Group (pfeg) Excellence and Access Project, which will provide teachers with the help and support they need to teach personal finance in schools, Davies said: "We know the industry agrees with us on the need to improve the financial capability of young people leaving school. Those of you already working with schools can give yourselves a pat on the back. And today I am calling on the rest of the industry to do its bit too."
"If you spent a fraction of your multi-million pound marketing budgets on supporting personal finance education in schools, it would go a long way towards ensuring that future generations leave school equipped to make independent, informed decisions about their personal finances and long-term security. And that, in turn, would be good for the UK financial services sector. Well-informed consumers save more."
Personal finance education was first introduced onto the national curriculum a year ago, however research from the FSA has found that although nearly 90 per cent of schools already teach some personal finance, the majority of those do not yet regard teaching it as important.
Worryingly for the FSA the reesearch found that less than half the schools had heard of the Department for Employment and Skills (DfES) guidance on personal finance education, and 80 per cent of those who had heard of it were using it just a little or not at all.
