Students figuring out financial future with celeb money expert

The financial whizz popped into Denbigh School to offer the sixth form students an insight into how they ought to manage their money, as part of a bid by the Open University Business School to encourage young people to get saving savvy.

While Martin engaged his receptive audience, researchers from the OU filmed staff and students for a new, free, online finance course.

Spread across eight sessions, the OU’s ‘Managing My Money for Young Adults’ course will launch in the autumn, coinciding with the new academic year. It will follow the timeline of a young person’s typical financial journey, considering how people spend their money and assessing the risks associated with shopping online, the financial consequences of moving into higher education and effective management of personal debt.

Martin said: “It’s a pleasure to get into Denbigh school and help these young adults start to tool up on financial knowledge in a way that isn’t too arduous, I hope. Better still, is that it’s going to form part of a free Open University course so that across the country people will be able to download the sessions to their mobiles and tablets, so they can join in too.”

The course is designed to be studied in school or at home and will be available from September, through the OU’s free social learning platform OpenLearn. Each module will amount to three hours of study time, which can be broken into more manageable chunks of time, and completion of the course will result in a certificate of achievement.

Denbigh School headteacher Andy Squires said: “For many young people, the responsibility of personal finance is something they may think is way off in the future. Martin demonstrated today that our students need to be thinking sooner rather than later about the effective management of their finances, whether they embark on university or start work.

“The OU course will be an invaluable resource and we were delighted to offer the expertise and participation of Denbigh’s Careers Officer, Sixth Form Teaching staff and students. Their advice will be instrumental in helping students with the financial challenges young people will face in the five years after they leave school.”