Financial Education. A Vibrantly Developing Social Innovation

For some years now, training courses in financial management that are open to all — including both adults and children — have been thriving throughout the world, particularly since the onset of the economic crisis. Public authorities and voluntary organizations hope, by way of these training modules, to impart to as many people as possible the rudiments of economics, management and finance. Given the “increasing financialization of the economy”, these latter are seen today as essential knowledge for living well. “Financial education helps people to budget, manage their income, save, invest efficiently and avoid falling victim to fraud”, explains Julien Damon. This “new direction in social policy”, which Damon sees as ”particularly innovative” has been supported since the mid-1990s by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which has, among other bodies, published a set of recommendations for promoting the development of financial education. After a detailed description of the work of that international institution in this area, Julien Damon outlines some examples of initiatives taken throughout the world, before focussing on the advances made in this field by France.