This quarterly newsletter is the first issue of the Consumer education alliance news, which focuses on providing consumer education updates for Alliance members. It’s also a place where Alliance members can publicise or share their consumer education activities with other Alliance members, so why not do so by contacting us at oftconsumereducationteam@oft.gsi.gov.uk
Since its launch in June 2008, over 3,750 teachers and learning managers have registered to use the OFT’s Skilled to go materials.
Skilled to go is the OFT’s free online toolkit which uses everyday consumer situations as contexts for teaching literacy and numeracy. Read what teachers and students think about the toolkit on the feedback page of the Skilled to go web pages and see why it’s so popular for yourselves by registering on at Skilled to go.
The OFT consumer education team attended the OECD Joint conference on consumer education in Paris in October. Conference themes included the roles of consumer education, good practice, digital competence and sustainable consumption.
There was a broad international mix of delegates from government, social policy, business and academic fields. Other UK attendees included representatives from Consumer Focus, BERR, DEFRA and OFSTED who all either presented or were involved in the breakout sessions. OECD Committee on Consumer Policy organised the conference jointly with United Nations Marrakech Taskforce on Sustainable Consumption and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Some of the recurring points from the presentations included how consumer information differs from education, and the importance of understanding influences on consumer behaviour when designing consumer education programmes. You can see all of the presentations on the OECD website. Click on the presenter's name to access their slides. For example, DEFRA's work gathered evidence of consumer behaviour and developed a framework that can be used to plan approaches and set behaviour goals for environmental consumer education. You can see the framework itself at DEFRA website.
Following the Skilled to go pilot projects, the evaluation report is now available. See the press release that was issued regarding the evaluation.
After being piloted between January and April 2008 by two colleges, 11 teachers and over 100 learners, an evaluation report was carried out with the aim of firstly, testing the effectiveness of the toolkit in developing consumer skills, knowledge and confidence, and secondly, to get feedback from teachers and learners to adapt Skilled to go before its launch.
The evaluation research findings were very positive and in summary include the following:
In addition there are numerous examples of behaviour change: people saving money via shopping around, returning items for the first time and feeling confident enough to discuss matters with salespeople.
The full report is available on the Consumer education Research section on this website.
After significant interest from local authority Trading Standards Services (TSS) and Scottish secondary schools, work is planned to repackage, that is, to tailor the toolkit for those two sectors.
The repackaging work for both of these projects will take place at the beginning of the year, and if anyone from TSS has experience of school or college visits or any sort of outreach work in the community, and feel they have a contribution to make to the OFT’s TSS repackaging work, then please contact Rhianwen Roberts on rhianwen.roberts@oft.gsi.gov.uk.
You can now publicise your consumer education activity and track the work of others on the OFT’s consumer education database, specifically created, in conjunction with the Consumer Education Liaison Group (CELG), for Alliance members.
With so much consumer education activity taking place throughout the UK, the newly established online database allows Alliance members to publicise their consumer education projects and events to fellow members to share information and best practice and avoid duplication.
See the UK consumer education project database.
Coming to a high street near you, the Save Xmas campaign hits the road from February for ten weeks. Proving it's never too early to start saving, the Save Xmas roadshows will provide on the spot advice and information on Christmas saving options at 30 venues across the country. See the Save Xmas section on this website.
February is Scams Awareness Month - the OFT's annual campaign to warn consumers about the dangers of scams. Every year, three million people fall victim to scams, and the elderly and vulnerable are more likely to be targeted. The OFT and Consumer Direct are working with TSS to organise a series of national and local activities to highlight the problem. To find out more see the Scams section on this website.
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