Financial Class for Grad 90

It was good to see and entire classroom of students, excited about “Math” for a change. The Little Rock Job Corps Center has integrated a financial planning class into the Grad 90 course. The innovative, interactive course sponsered by The Univeristy of Arkansas -Little Rock is 100% FREE! 

The NEFE HSFPP was designed and developed around a special type of education called performance-based learning.　 With performance-based learning, students take what they learn and apply it directly in the course of each unit. Carefully designed exercises and activities move the student step-by-step toward each of the seven core competencies that the program teaches. In the process, students:

1. Create their own financial plan
2. Create their own budget
3. Propose a personal saving and investing plan
4. Select strategies to use in handling credit and managing their debt
5. Demonstrate how to use various financial services
6. Create a personal insurance plan
7. Examine how their choice of career and lifestyle will affect their financial plan

Along the way to learning these seven lessons, students also learn dozens of related skills, all designed to help them see how easy and important it is to manage their resources.

Ms. Lameria Colclough is an instructor for the program, sponsored by the University of Arkansas (Little Rock).

The interactive program challenged students to budget, balance a check book, while deciding how much to spend on the necessities of life. The session was due to run over the speaker’s allotted time. However, students asked her to stay and complete the course. At the end of the course, there is a question and answer period.

“Is it better to plan a family or just have kids at random?” asked Ms. Colclough

“It’s better to wait and have kids, they too expensive” some students answered back. After the course, some saw the benefits of attending college, family planning and fiscal responsibility, in dollars and cents. $$$

(The Non-Residential Counselor, and the CPP week 4 instructor is planning on adding this course to their student activities too)