Financial awareness education with apprentices in the Australian construction industry: Program evaluation

Abstract

A financial awareness education program was implemented with construction industry apprentices in Victoria, Australia. The program included face-to-face delivery of education around a range of financial management issues that apprentices face as they begin their apprenticeship. The paper reports on an evaluation of the program, which included surveys at completion of the presentation, as well as focus group follow-up two months later. Both intended behaviour change and actual behaviour change, including knowledge retention, are noted in the results. The program evaluation highlights factors such as relevance and immediacy of need as crucial to determining appropriate content and successful implementation. The paper concludes by recommending inclusion of financial awareness in vocational education curricula on an ongoing basis, rather than as ad hoc delivered programs, to ensure sustainable knowledge gains and behaviour change outcomes. © eContent Management Pty Ltd.

Keywords

Author Keywords

construction industry apprentices financial education program evaluation

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations

Incolink, Carlton, vic, Australia

Funding & Acknowledgements

U.S. Department of Justice, DOJ

B aumann and Hall (2012) note that financial education has become particularly relevant post the Global Financial Crisis of 2008–2009 to inform individual financial knowledge and behaviour. The growth in consumer financial markets, the vast range of financial products on offer, and the myriad of modern financial concepts add to the complexity for consumers (West, 2012; Sood, Choudhary, & Singh, 2012). Incolink implemented a Financial Awareness Project to apprentices in the Victorian construction industry between 2009 and 2012. Incolink is joint enterprise between unions and employer associations in the Victorian building and construction industry. The project was funded by the Consumer Credit Fund, Department of Justice. A key project intervention was the delivery of education sessions to over 7000 apprentices. This paper attempts to help address the dearth of literature which exists on financial education programs (Lyons, Palmer, Koralalage, & Scherpf, 2006), and in particular financial education program evaluations (Fox, Bartholomae, & Lee, 2005), and focuses on whether the intervention created changes in apprentices’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour.

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Financial awareness education with apprentices in the Australian construction industry: Program evaluation

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