The West Brom, the leading building society in Birmingham and the Black Country, has delivered workshops to over 2,300 local students in the past 18 months, as it continues to progress with its ambitious programme to provide financial education sessions to children throughout the region.

Since April 2022, colleagues from the across West Brom’s 34 branches have held sessions in 67 different settings, spanning primary schools through to local colleges and sixth forms. For the younger pupils, its interactive ‘Money-Go Round’ workshops cover topics such as the value of money and the importance of saving, while its ‘Financial Fitness’ sessions are aimed at secondary school, and more recently, college students, to introduce them to mortgages, payslips, pensions and debt.

Following the success of the programme, the West Brom is now also partnering with schools for children with special educational needs, offering tailored sessions to ensure all children are offered an opportunity to learn about money.

The expansion of the programme now means that the West Brom has achieved its ambition of being able to offer financial education to any child within an education setting, with the Society now also looking to grow the initiative further geographically through interactive sessions via Zoom.

Amy Mason, ESG Co-ordinator at the West Brom, comments: "Research from the Money and Pensions Service has found that over two thirds of young adults don’t feel confident planning for their financial future, highlighting how important it is for children to gain an understanding of money and finances at an earlier age. Through our programme we hope to play a key role in ensuring children and teenagers across the West Midlands and beyond feel much more comfortable managing their finances by the time they reach adulthood, and we look forward to expanding the initiative even further in the months ahead"

Natasha Harris, Careers Lead and Guidance Practitioner at Halesbury School – a special education school in Halesowen - adds: "Over the last year, the West Brom have volunteered to deliver several workshops to students in the secondary phase of our school. All of our students have significant special educational needs and / or disabilities and the sessions delivered by the West Brom have been highly differentiated to meet the diverse and varied learning needs of our young people. These sessions have been a fantastic way of engaging our learners in activities and conversations about money and have been an important step towards independence."

The financial education programme is just one of many initiatives ran by the West Brom to support the communities in which it operates. To celebrate the positive actions the Society has taken over the last year, the West Brom recently published ‘Building a Fairer Future’, its first Impact Report which looks at the many ways the West Brom has positively impacted not only its communities, but also its members (customers), its people and the environment.

Other key highlights include:

• Removed all arrears charges to help those who are financially vulnerable
• Becoming the first building society in the country to partner with Plain Numbers to help build financial literacy
• Being recognised as a Disability Confident Leader
• Providing 11 homes to Ukrainian Refugees
• Operating on 100% renewable energy

To read the full report visit here