The Department of Education recognises the need for Queensland students to be confident and informed financially literate consumers and investors. Consumer and financial literacy is a cross-curricular area of learning and includes the teaching of concepts relating to consumerism as well as financial matters.
The rationale for consumer and financial literacy in education is identified in the
National Consumer and Financial Literacy Framework (PDF, 691KB) . The framework is designed to guide states and territories in the development of curriculum and support materials. It describes essential consumer and financial capabilities that will support lifelong learning and provides guidance on how consumer and financial education may be structured to support a progression of learning from Foundation (Prep) to Year 10. There are three interrelated dimensions of learning that underpin consumer and financial education: Knowledge and understanding; Competence; and Responsibility and enterprise.
Teaching consumer and financial literacy
Moneysmart for teachers—Helping teachers connect learning to life. Moneysmart’s education program is developed for teachers, by teachers.
Across Australia teachers are bringing everyday financial topics into the classroom, boosting kids’ engagement and critical thinking.
With ready-to-use, hands-on classroom resources aligned to the curriculum, teachers can save time and focus on improving the student experience.
Teachers are increasing their own financial wellbeing through our accredited professional learning courses.
Buy Smart competition
The annual Buy Smart competition is a hands-on learning activity to help young people in Years 4–12 learn about consumer and financial literacy issues. Students must develop a creative project to explain a chosen consumer issue and give advice to a target audience.
Buy Smart is run by the Office of Fair Trading and has been mapped to the Australian Curriculum, making it easy for entries to be applied as a classroom activity, assessment piece or extension exercise. The Teachers' kit has more information about prize money, implementation, resources and incursion opportunities.