Students at Cornwall College Camborne will soon be taught about money and personal finance after it was announced that the college has been chosen to join the Centre of Excellence programme in financial education. The news comes as part of a ground-breaking partnership between the UK’s leading financial education charity Personal Finance Education Group (PFEG), part of Young Enterprise and Santander.

The announcement means Cornwall College, in Camborne, will work with an educational specialist to create a detailed programme of financial education for their students and integrate the teaching of personal finance into the curriculum. Teachers will be assisted in the delivery of effective personal finance lessons and learning activities, drawing on the charity’s 14 years’ experience of aiding educators in the schools and colleges across the UK.

Santander is supporting the development of Cornwall College, Camborne to achieve Centre of Excellence status in the next year, turning it into a beacon of best practice in teaching children and young people about money.

The college is one of 106 across the country set to benefit from the programme, 50 of which are currently funded by Santander. It will be supported in sharing its new expertise with other schools in the local area to benefit the wider educational community.

Sally Foard, director at Cornwall College, said: "We know just how important it will be for our students to manage their money well throughout their lives. These skills don’t come automatically – they need to be taught, and as it is our responsibility to prepare them for adult life we believe embedding financial education into our college curriculum is a necessity. We are pleased to be working with PFEG to become a Centre of Excellence in this crucial area, for the benefit of our students.”

Michael Mercieca, chief executive of Young Enterprise, said: “We are delighted that Cornwall College has joined our Centre of Excellence programme through our partnership with Santander. The work that staff will be doing with our educational specialists over the coming months will be of enormous benefit to students, with financial education set to be firmly embedded into the curriculum. Our aim is to ensure that all students enter adult life with the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to manage money well.”

Claire Newell, branch director at Santander’s Truro branch, added: “At Santander we believe it is important for everyone to have good basic money management skills, but particularly young people who are encountering money earlier than ever. We recognise that teaching young people requires specialist delivery and the Centres of Excellence programme offers a tailored programme using materials that have been designed by education experts that complement the existing curriculum.”