QCoal Foundation

The Ca$hED Up Program

QCoal Foundation partnered with the Financial Basics Community Foundation  in 2017 to improve financial resilience and capability for young Australians, with a particular focus on those living in regional and remote communities.

Research has identified that over 60% of Australian adults are facing some level of financial stress or vulnerability with over 2 million people experiencing high levels of financial stress.  According to the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics (HILDA) survey people under 25 are the least financially literate in Australia.  Younger people are typically more likely to experience severe financial stress than older people, and financial stress is a key factor in many areas of mental health, family violence and poverty across Australia. Research also supports the view that the Australian population is most vulnerable in the area of financial knowledge and behaviour, with almost half of the population identifying themselves as having low to very low financial knowledge.

The deficit in financial capability is widespread and is an issue in both metropolitan and regional communities, making building financially resilient communities a critical area of need.

To address this deficit our partnership developed the Ca$hED Up – Developing Financial Skills for Life program.

Financial capability is addressed in the Australian curriculum in specialist subjects such as mathematics, business, social science and economics. It is up to individual schools to develop and apply financial capability within these subjects.  This means that not all students are accessing financial capability material.

The Ca$hED Up program is different. The program has been specifically designed to be delivered by secondary school teachers as part of a general life skills curriculum. The Ca$hED Up program materials can be used by secondary teachers, irrespective of their teaching area. Lesson materials allow teachers to “pick up and go” or to adjust to suit the local context as required. The goal is that all secondary students have access to financial capability training as a life skill rather than as part of a specialist subject.

The Ca$hEd Up Program is comprised of 4 modules aligned to the Australian curriculum and the National Consumer and Financial Literacy Framework. Each module consists of five lessons. The Ca$hED Up material is completely flexible, allowing schools to deliver any module to any year level.

During the trial the program was offered at twelve schools across regional Queensland. Over 1,500 students took part in the trial.  Those schools implemented one or more modules with students ranging from Year 7 to Year 12, typically through a Life Skills or Pathways program.

Trial results are encouraging. 95% of students indicated they thought it was important to learn about money and personal finance and over 90% indicated they had conversations or sort advice about money after completing the course. Teacher feedback has commended the “hands on” nature of the lesson materials. Promisingly 98% of teachers would run the course again and would recommend it to their colleagues.

The proven effectiveness of the trial program resulted in 24 schools signing up for an Australia-wide rollout in 2020.  Results from the nationwide expansion will be used to further evidence the effectiveness of the program and to shape future program content.

QCoal Foundation is proud to be the Founding Donor of the Ca$hEd Up program.

Learn more about the Ca$hEd Up program using the resources below.