Third Party Source for Budgeting Education
Has anyone used an outside source to educate students on succesful budgeting / finance managing and what was your experience? For example, created a partnership with a bank or credit union to offer bank accounts with perks or on campus workshops?
We work with several financial institutions to come out and have discussions with our students, the institutions have been the ones to reach out to our schools.
Banks often have marketing and outreach people that are happy to work with colleges. While this may not apply to all institutions, it may be helpful to partner with Student Services, Career Services, or Student Government. Banks like to have a presence at job fairs, new student orientations, and open houses. For some schools, the department that coordinates such activities might already have contacts they can share with financial aid.
Kellee Gunderson
Anthony,
I would check out their website and see if they have any contacts for something like this and if not then try contacting the branch manager. You could even try someone in new accounts or sales since this is an opportunity for them to explain their services and possibly gain some new accounts.
Cheryl Kesson
Is there a particular person you should ask for at a financial institution. They always seem too "busy" to help when I approach them.
Greg,
Great point you can be building relationships that can positively influence students outside of school as well.
Cheryl Kesson
I think forming a partnership with a financial institution is a great idea. Bringing in another voice to educate students on financial literacy will reinforce the concepts in their minds, and such a partnership may offer other opportunities such as the aforementioned bank/credit accounts or possibly internships if they would relate to your curriculum.
Jessica,
I am glad you found some of the ideas here helpful.
I think a guest speaker can be very helpful to students. Someone recently posted how their local bank is willing to come out to talk to students about budgeting and finance which I think is a great way to utilize free resources right in your community.
Cheryl Kesson
These are all great ideas that I will be sharing with my school director. Maybe I can bring in a guest speaker to do a presentation to start off with then graduate to something more like what I have read here.
Paula,
I love this idea! There are so many free resources available that students can take advantage of if they know where to look. You can provide both online and local community resources. This can double as a good resource for staff members who may be looking to brush up on some skills or learn something new.
Cheryl Kesson
I have talked to our Director about having a student board where we can list places that will teach courses for free in financial, computer program(excell, Quicken books), & how to be a Entrepreneur. I would think it would only help to educate them on what to expect once they have left school.
And I really like the idea of using a online "game" course. That approach is so relevent to our current student demographic. I'm going to look into that - thanks!
Allison,
We partner with a company to offer an interactive online course in budgeting and finance. Set in a "game" type environment it is an interesting and different approach to a somewhat dry topic. We have had a lot of positive feedback on the course.
I like your idea for working with a bank or credit union to help students and would love to hear if anyone has had any experience with this.
Cheryl Kesson
