Local secondary schools set to take part in money challenge

SCHOOLS around Australia are gearing up to take part in the annual Suncorp Bank ESSI Money Challenge.

Returning for its ninth year, the challenge runs in secondary schools around Australia and aims to enhance financial literacy in students.

Lara Secondary College is one of the school’s taking part and has participated for at least the past 15 years.

Humanities teacher Alan Buckingham is running the challenge this year as part of his Year 10 business class.

“It’s a really good opportunity for students to find out for themselves and to work at their own rate,” he said.

“It’s really trying to simulate real life. The idea is we earn an income and what do we do with it? We have our necessaries but then how are we going to be wealthy?”

As part of the game, students participate in different activities where they learn about earning, investing, budgeting, selecting credit cards, opening a bank account and more.

Based in a virtual world, the game provides a safe and engaging space for students to practice and learn about real-life finances and the consequences associated with it.

“As a teacher, when you try and teach that just in an ordinary classroom, it’s not that interesting,” Mr Buckingham said.

“If they can work their way through something which is really quite realistic, like ESSI Money, and they can work at their own rate and they can ask questions and work together, then it’s a better way of learning.”

Participants competing in the challenge also go in the running to win cash prizes for themselves and the school, with a prize pool of more than $11,000.

More than 9,000 students from 320 schools participated last year, with the 2024 challenge running from August 19 until August 30.

The ESSI Money game is also available year round for teachers to boost the financial literacy of their students.

For more information, head to financialbasics.org.au