This study develops a general method for evaluating changes in response relating to students’ perceptions of personal finance and financial products using data from a sample of 1,250 students aged 16-18 who participated in a financial capability education study in the UK. We find significant changes in the responses of students towards reported career choice following the Financial Literacy Education course at national colleges in the UK.
The students’ personal learning trajectories shows that studying the relevant topic for career reasons is more likely to progress in their learning about the topic. Our interview data suggests that what may be happening is that students had often already decided on a broad career prior to their involvement in the course. Qualitatively, we also noted course impact was related to a prior expressed interest in business, more specifically an interest in business finance or financial studies.
Furthermore, our narrative analysis of the students’ educational biography data confirmed that existing patterns of behavior concerning career choice are not easy to change through educational provisions. We suggest that it is therefore of interest to policy makers to understand better the interplay between career choices and engagement in learning that is provided by the 14-19 years old curriculum.
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Download the research (available to AFCPE members or by request from the authors): Xin Shi, Pauline Prevett, Valerie Farnsworth, Koo Chun Kwong, Wanggen Wan, Feng He, Qingqing Zhai, and Lu Zhen, “Modeling Changes to Survey Response Items Over Time in a Britain Financial Literacy Education Study,” JFCP, Vol 30(1)
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