Bank of Ireland UK and Young Enterprise NI, the leading enterprise education charity in Northern Ireland, have once again joined forces to bring financial capability programmes to almost 8,000 young people across schools in Northern Ireland.

Bank of Ireland has supported Young Enterprise since 2013, enabling them to provide young students with the skills and confidence to successfully manage their finances. The partnership sees the young people and their teachers work directly with experienced business mentors from Bank of Ireland UK who volunteer their time to provide real-world insight into financial capability, and ensure young people achieve the maximum benefit from their involvement.

In Primary 1 and 2, pupils receive the ‘Ourselves’ programme where they learn about the ‘world of work’, the importance of saving, earning, decision making and teamwork. For Primary 2 and 3, children receive the ‘Our Families’ programme where they learn about basic living needs and wants that families have. Post-primary students receive the ‘Personal Economics’ programme which helps them in developing money management skills for life, with introductions to credit and debt, savings, budgeting and more. The programmes not only provide mathematics and money management skills, but also prepares students for entering the working world.

Jan Donaldson, head of stakeholder engagement at Young Enterprise Northern Ireland said: “This partnership with Bank of Ireland UK gives us the opportunity to change the lives of the almost 8,000 young people involved. Financial capability is an essential skill, but one that many struggle with, even as adults. By introducing financial capability at a young age, we are helping these young people to grasp the issue and gain the experience they’ll need to make good financial decisions in the coming years and long into adulthood.”

Speaking about the partnership, George Higginson, director of Northern Ireland, partnerships and mortgages at Bank of Ireland UK, said: “We’re delighted to be continuing our partnership with Young Enterprise NI to support them in providing financial education to thousands of young people across Northern Ireland. 

“We’ve all learned the importance of self-care, particularly over the last two years and financial well-being is a crucial part of this. Learning and adopting good habits from a young age are skills for life and we’re proud to be working with Young Enterprise to prepare young people for the financial decisions they’ll face in the future.  By connecting directly with local schools, we can ensure every young person has the tools they need to make the right choices.

Our continued support of Young Enterprise forms part of our Financial Wellbeing initiative, enabling our customers to have the confidence to manage their money, to plan for the future and to be as prepared as possible for the unexpected.”