ASB: Showing young Kiwis the financial essentials

Mark Graham, Head of Community, Sponsorship and Events at ASB, describes two incredible initiatives that are setting up young Kiwis for a lifetime of financial success. 

Why did you decide to launch a financial literacy program? Is this something that was missing from the school curriculum?

We’ve been helping kids get one step ahead for more than 100 years, with a long legacy of school banking and supporting the financial progress of the next generation of Kiwis. In 2010 we launched ASB GetWise, a program designed to inspire kids to be confident with money. It provides free, professionally facilitated classroom workshops, resources and digital tools to students across New Zealand. 

We believe it’s important to teach Kiwis money management skills while they’re young to help set them up for a solid financial future and enable them to progress and achieve their goals.

A decade ago financial literacy was largely absent from the core New Zealand school curriculum. ASB GetWise is mapped against curriculum-based outcomes and best practice, designed in collaboration with leading experts in education and cognitive development. Although it was developed and is funded by ASB, the program is run independently so it doesn’t promote any of our products or services.

ASB GetWise is a very interesting experience because you went from a physical event with classes given in schools to a digital/physical version. Why did you choose to introduce these digital tools and what results did you observe in terms of impact?

In 2020 we enhanced our GetWise offering, expanding its reach and extending the learning beyond GetWise classroom sessions. The digital version is not a replacement of the face-to-face workshops but has been designed to support students to continue learning online.

Tell me more about the results of ASB GetWise. And also, how do you measure the outcome of this program in terms of improving students' financial literacy? Do you have KPIs and if yes what were they?

We partnered with educational experts to develop a set of learning outcomes that are aligned to the New Zealand curriculum. The workshop content is regularly reviewed and updated based on teacher feedback. 

Since launching in 2010, more than 40,000 ASB GetWise workshops have been delivered in more than 70% of all New Zealand primary or intermediate schools and more than one million students have registered to take part.

Over the years we have developed clear goals and KPIs around program reach and impact i.e., the number of workshops delivered each year, teacher net promoter scores, and ensuring we deliver at least 50% of our workshops at low decile schools. Today we are also focused on driving uptake of our digital learning platform, designed to build on the workshops and result in positive behavioral change.