It is essentially a simulated banking programme teachers can apply to their class. Teachers “pay” their students for things such as completing tasks, engagement, and good behaviour. This creates an economy within the classroom in which students can learn various financial skills from.

Financial capability is not a compulsory part of the NZ curriculum. “As the school curriculum is so dense, not every learning area is covered as regularly as it should be. Educators only have so many contact hours with students, and the demands on them are already extremely high. Banqer is able to add value to the curriculum by making overlooked aspects, such as financial capability, a part of the everyday school environment with little/no effort on the teacher's behalf. This retains the intentions and integrity of the curriculum without overloading the educators.”

Banqer have recently expanded their programme to the Australian market. Kendall who lead the expansion, identified “the major point of variance is that Australia not only has a national curriculum, but also state level curricula. This means cross-state standardisation is more challenging, but it gives states the flexibility to focus on more localised outcomes.”

Banqer teaches essential life skills such as how to save, budget, calculate tax and learn about insurance. “Although Banqer is specifically built for primary aged students we have hundreds of high school students using it.”

We’re looking forward to seeing what else Banqer achieve in developing skills in financial capability for youth!