Finance education ‘failing young people’

Vince Cable, Treasury spokesman, said while there are some good courses available to a very small part of the student population, overall education standards regarding money are “abysmal” because it fails to grasp the magnitude of the problem.

Mr Cable was speaking at the Great Debt Debate, a financial industry meeting in Canary Wharf.

He said: “It’s not getting through to large numbers of people at the moment.

“The government’s idea is that you should include financial education in maths syllabus so that people learn about compound interest and that sort of thing. This is fine, but incredibly limiting.”

Mark Hoban MP, shadow financial secretary to the Treasury, said that young people need to understand not only interest rates, but issues regarding their own finances.