You may be able to code a website, design a logo or get a website to the top of Google – but is your financial knowledge up to scratch?
A new study released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has revealed some alarming statistics – only 38% of British adults surveyed understood what the term “inflation” meant, and only 69% said they put careful consideration into making a major purchase. These figures put the UK way behind several other developed nations, including Estonia and Latvia. If you think your financial literacy could use some improvement, there is online help and training available from True Potential Investor – a personal pension provider and ISA investor specialist that has partnered with the Open University.
Part of the Open University Business School, The True Potential Centre for the Public Understanding of Finance (PUFin) aims to develop financial knowledge on a general and personal level.
True Potential Investor invested £1.4 million into the True Potential Centre for the Public Understanding of Finance for research and to establish a series of free personal finance courses, including Managing My Money, Managing My Investments and Managing My Financial Journey. Together, the courses improve the core areas of personal finance, investments and financial service providers.
The newest course to be made available is Finance Fundamentals: Financial Planning and Budgeting, which highlights financial attitudes in our current economy and how to change bad habits. It has been designed to help households make better decisions with their money.
The modules can be accessed online through the FutureLearn educational platform and the Open University’s OpenLearn platform, meaning the courses are flexible enough to fit into even the busiest lifestyles.
To date, the courses have attracted some 200,000 sign-ups, underlining just how in-demand this type of financial knowledge is in the UK and the sheer scale of the knowledge gap.
Find out more about their free finance courses here.