UUM@Community: Financial Literacy for Teenagers

18 June 2022: Teenagers today are leaders of tomorrow. It is critical to equip them with practical know-how to manage their finances from the early days before them being entrusted with real money in the future. 

Students in Mathematical Modeling course, from BSc. Business Mathematics, Universiti Utara Malaysia aim to transfer their knowledge to help the teenagers towards improving their financial literacy through a hands-on program in a half-day program. This program is designed into smaller target groups to increase the effectiveness of program delivery. It took 2 months for the students to develop the appropriate content, facilitated by Associate Prof Dr. Nazihah Ahmad and Associate Prof Dr. Masnita Misiran, who also acts as their course instructors.

Before the program, these university students were also provided with sufficient practical financial knowledge from Mr. Wallace Leong, a licensed financial planner, and technical financial knowledge from their course structures. 

A total of 180 participants are involved in this program, comprises of 120 students from SMK Taman Jelutong, SMK Kulim and SMK Lunas, and 60 mentors from the university. The teenagers are selected from three schools from Kulim, Kedah area, one of the districts in Malaysia with the majority of the population residing in the B40 category (the bottom tier of the socio-economy structure in Malaysia). The selection is made in collaboration with the District Education Office Kulim, Kedah. This vulnerable group is given priority as this group is expected to have lower exposure and minimal role models of healthy financial management.

This program is made possible with the collaboration of the Centre for Testing, Measurement & Appraisal, School of Quantitative Sciences, Academic Excellence Education Unit from the Universiti Utara Malaysia, District Education Office Kulim, Schools in Kulim, MYSTEM Ambassador, MYSUN Network, and all the energetic students from SQQM3024 Mathematical Modeling course through the service-learning program.