Standard Bank's Consumer Financial Education in South Africa

Standard Bank's Consumer Financial Education programme focuses on providing financial literacy interventions through face-to-face interactions and in 2013, 96% of their consumer education initiatives were delivered through classroom-based learning (2012: 98%). They also utilised a radio campaign to increase awareness. Their programmes target adults and the youth, as well as their customers and the broader community. In 2013, 54% of the programmes reached urban society with 46% directed at rural communities. During 2013, Standard Bank introduced community-based workshops to deliver a personal financial management programme and a financial literacy awareness campaign using community-based radio. These, together with the Winning Teams Programme and Teach Children to Save campaign, were their flagship consumer financial education projects for the year. They have introduced a rigorous monitoring and evaluation framework which will enable them to determine the impact and efficacy of their consumer education programmes in the future. Here are some of Standard Bank consumer financial education activities: Winning Teams Programme The Winning Teams Programme is a schools-based initiative that takes the form of an engaging and interactive board game targeting Grade 11 learners. Delivering financial literacy to young people at this stage of their lives is important as they are in a transitional phase into adulthood, with the associated financial responsibilities. A key challenge is that while they provide the training, educational materials and board game to the schools, they rely on the schools to implement the programme and get learners to play the game. The Bank have improved the quality of the content, introduced progress monitors to support and guide educators and they reduced the number of participating schools from 1 771 to 603 to allow a concentrated focus on schools committed to the programme. The programme encountered challenges in 2013 which have provided important lessons in understanding the environment in which it is delivered. Teach Children to Save South Africa Teach Children to Save South Africa is a national industry collaboration where bankers volunteer their time to teach high school learners about saving. Lesson plans are developed by the Banking Association of South Africa (BASA) and are available to all volunteers, who also attend a brief training session to receive guidance and tips on how to teach the lesson. In 2013, 134 (2012: 114) staff volunteered their time to teach a lesson on savings in schools across five provinces reaching over 5 400 learners in 29 schools (2012: approximately 4 000 learners reached). The campaign is linked to Mandela Day celebrations and national Savings Month which seeks to inculcate a culture of savings among South Africa's youth. Community-based workshops This initiative delivers financial literacy and personal financial management training and education in communities across South Africa. They target existing Standard Bank customers and the broader community and work closely with community-based organisations, employers, government departments and their own provincial structures to reach participants. The workshops are delivered in the local language of the region and during 2013, they reached over 14 100 consumers across urban and rural communities in the Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Western Cape provinces; exceeding our 2013 target of 11 560. Skilled facilitators are sourced from within the region to deliver the workshops and from this initiative they have developed a network of financial literacy facilitators across the country. The content developed for this programme has been well received by consumers and resonates with financial education needs. What has been encouraging is the increased demand within Standard Bank to extend the reach of this programme to key places of employment where we serve Inclusive Banking customers and to their public sector clients. Their ability to use this programme for these purposes enables them to reach a wider audience and supports their strategic business relationships. Financial literacy radio campaign Standard Chartered have launched a community-based financial literacy radio programme broadcast over three community radio stations. The radio programme is run over eight weeks and is based on a typical South African family and uses the family's everyday events and financial decision-making to highlight key financial literacy and personal financial management topics. Winning Teams Programme - The independent audit conducted at the end of 2013 to assess the effectiveness of the schools based programme highlighted various challenges with implementing a programme of this nature. These findings have been taken into account and a different approach for 2014 will be investigated. Teach Children to Save South Africa - Feedback from educators has been positive. - Surveys and feedback forms are completed by educators and volunteers. These are used to determine attitudes and perceptions of the stakeholders involved in the campaign to determine if the campaign has relevance to the target audience. Community-based workshops - Attendance at these workshops exceeded initial expectations and the evidence suggests that the workshops were successful. They will review this initiative with a view to up-skilling their bank consultants to provide education to reduce dependencies on external providers. Financial literacy radio campaign - Station listenership is the only measure available and their potential listeners across the three community-based radio stations is 637 000. Standard Bank will review their approach to schools-based financial literacy training and in-community training and explore different media and technology to better engage and reach their customers. They have designed and developed training content and tools for their staff to deliver critical financial literacy information to customers. At present all their consumer financial education initiatives are delivered by external facilitators. Over the medium term, they aim to build a more cost-effective and sustainable consumer education model utilising both their trained staff as facilitators and where appropriate, external community-based facilitators. This will be piloted in the near future and closely monitored to determine the feasibility and business case for this approach. To contact Standard Bank and inquire about this Initiative, please visit their website and fill the email form at the bottom: http://sustainability.standardbank.com/socioeconomic/inclusive-financial-services-in-south-africa/consumer-education/