Financial education accreditation for teachers being launched by Nationwide

Nationwide Building Society is launching an accreditation for primary school teachers that aims to boost confidence in teaching financial education and help children to develop money skills.

Developed in partnership with Visa, the accreditation will launch for primary school teachers in April and for secondary school teachers by the end of 2026, the society said.

Teachers will be able to access the accredited financial education training on Nationwide’s “money lessons” webpage alongside a package of ready-to-use lessons and activities, reducing the need to create content from scratch and helping deliver consistent lessons and activities.

To become accredited, teachers will need to complete a two-hour online course covering practical topics such as managing money, avoiding scams and recognising misleading online content, followed by a short competency test, Nationwide said.

It said research among 2,000 parents with children aged between five to 15 years old found a quarter (25%) said their children now learn about money through social media.

More than seven in 10 (72%) parents surveyed said they struggled to understand personal finance growing up, and 70% said it negatively affected them later in life, according to the survey carried out by Censuswide in January and February.

Materials for Nationwide’s money lessons have been created with input from psychologists and special educational needs (SEN) teaching specialists.

Nationwide said it will track the number of accreditations by receiving information on completions, including the number of teachers, schools and accredited modules. Teachers will also receive a certificate.

The society said the initiative is free for schools to use. In the first year it hopes to support 10,000 teachers and within year two it hopes to have supported 25,000 teachers.

Amanda Beech, director of retail services at Nationwide, said: “This new accreditation provides teachers simple, ready-to-use tools helping pupils to make safer everyday money decisions and gives parents reassurance that trusted teachers, using trusted materials, are shaping their children’s financial habits – both for now and into their futures.”