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BCSC campaign stresses financial literacy key to youth meeting lifetime goals

  • Date:

    2007-04-30

  • Number:

    2007/30

Vancouver - The British Columbia Securities Commission is travelling to different communities across the province to meet with school officials, parents, teachers and youth about the importance of learning financial life skills at an early age.

"In an increasingly complex financial world, young people need to understand how to manage their money and avoid expensive mistakes," says Patricia Bowles, Director, Communications and Education, BCSC. "Because being financially literate is a life-long process, reaching youth is critical in order to give them the life skills that will help them to establish sound financial habits as working adults."

Bowles will speak about the BCSC's educational efforts aimed at youth on Tuesday,
May 01, 2007 in Campbell River at the Robron Centre at 7 p.m. This is the first stop in the BCSC's financial literacy campaign that will travel the province this spring and fall.

The BCSC's financial literacy program toolkit includes The City: Financial Life Skills, a free, comprehensive and easy-to-use teaching resource that supports the Finances component of Planning 10 (a course that B.C. Grade 10 students must complete in order to graduate). More than 1,200 B.C teachers in all of the province's school districts use the resource, and it has received excellent reviews from B.C. students and teachers.

The BCSC's InvestRight.org website, a RED-FLAGS campaign, and a proactive investor-warning program are the other components of the Commission's financial literacy program that supports people in different stages of their investing lives.

InvestRight is the BCSC's one-stop resource for investors to educate themselves on how to make informed investment decisions. Its website at www.InvestRight.org provides a wide range of tools to help investors develop the critical thinking skills they need to protect themselves, including investor alerts and watches. The BCSC's RED-FLAGS communications campaign alerts investors to common sales pitches used by scam artists along with a province-wide seminar program.

The BCSC is the independent provincial government agency responsible for regulating trading in securities within the province. If you have questions, contact Andrew Poon, Media Relations, 604-899-6880.