Singapore's national financial education programme, MoneySense said on Saturday that all the polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education (ITE) students, who are going to start their schools from 2019, will have to take a financial education course.
This module was one of three new MoneySense initiatives that were launched by Education Minister Monetary Authority of Singapore board member Ong Ye Kung on Saturday.
MoneySense stated that this course will "equip our youth with a strong foundation in financial skills." Almost 7000 students who participated in a successful pilot earlier this year, have learned how to budget, discovered their personal money habits and learned how compound interest works.
As per MoneySense, "Feedback from students and lecturers was positive, with students agreeing that the module on saving, budgeting, and understanding their financial personality had encouraged them to take steps to form better financial habits."
It also added that over the next years more financial education curriculum modules will be launched with selected second- and third-year students.
During the launch, Ong said that "We always ask people to go for a physical check-up from time to time ... Likewise, it is also important from time to time for us to check our financial health, to make sure that we are healthy financially."
It should be noted that the MoneySense debuted a free online Financial Health Check tool. It also said that they will organize several roadshows to help Singapore residents assess their financial health, identify those gaps and take steps to plug these gaps.
Even though the website is now in English, MoneySense said that it is working to make the website a multilingual site. It has also enhanced services at the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board and at the Housing and Development Board (HDB).
However, Complimentary one-to-one financial health clinics will be from now till 2019 at different locations. The polytechnics and ITE students will also be able to participate in activities at their respective schools. They will be able to take a financial health check customised for students, said MoneySense.
