Kiwi kids need help to grow up with a good understanding of money and how to manage it well.

Research shows that early financial education at school improves a child’s life after school.

That’s why Partners Life is supporting the learning platform Banqer.

Banqer is an interactive learning tool that helps develop financial literacy and capability in primary and secondary school students across New Zealand.

Using Banqer High, over 22,000 New Zealand high school students have experienced applying for a job and earning classroom income, paying taxes, exploring the property market, enrolling in KiwiSaver, buying insurance, and more, as they practice how to manage their money.

Exploring Banqer enables students to experience real-life situations where they make their own assessments and decisions, and are responsible for the outcomes.

The goal is that they become inspired to be curious, creative, and confident with money.

With the help of Partners Life, the Banqer High platform for secondary school students has recently expanded to include a personal risk insurance expansion.

It introduces students to private medical and income protection as a way of managing personal risk.

As students move through the expansion, the platform will generate random events with varying levels of risk. Students are then able to see the impact of their decision to purchase personal risk insurance… or not.

Partners Life’s experts worked with the Banqer team to make sure the new expansion contains the latest and most accurate specialist information available
in this space.

The personal risk insurance expansion adds to other expansions covering:

• Banking
• Careers
• Income
• Savings
• KiwiSaver
• Budgeting
• Flatting
• Buying property
• General insurance
• Investing on the Banqer High Stock Exchange

Since its launch in 2020, Banqer High has been used by more than 22,000 Kiwi secondary students nationwide.

Another 170,000 younger students use the primary and intermediate Banqer platform across Australia and New Zealand.

Why do we support it?

Partners Life was founded with a core focus of closing a gaping underinsurance gap in New Zealand.

Over the past year we’ve reviewed our sponsorships to make sure they align with the purpose of reducing the gap – and one of the best ways we can do this is by starting with young Kiwi.

Increasing financial literacy and awareness of risk at a young age will help inspire students to be confident with money. We hope this knowledge will be passed on through families so we can create generational change.

The Partners Life sponsorship pays for an extra 750 students to access the platform at no cost.

What about your school?

Is your school currently using Banqer as a tool to help kids increase their confidence with money?

It’s easy to refer a teacher to Banqer High. Just go to https://high.banqer.co/nz/part... and fill in the form.

Case Study: Cashmere High School, Christchurch

The great value of Banqer is that it pulls together essential life skills, says Joe Eccleton, Principal of Cashmere High School.

“The feedback we’ve had from our staff, our students and our parents has been overwhelmingly positive,” says Eccleton.

Head of Social Studies Blair Sang says financial literacy is a problem in New Zealand.

“Not everyone has got the skills, even the basics, so we just wanted to start them thinking about retirement, even though they’re really young.

“Are you thinking about buying a house, saving up for a mortgage? What are the things you have to think about there? What about if you’re going out flatting?”

“There’s a lot of life skills there, stuff we take for granted that we don’t always teach.”

To the students, it feels like a gaming platform, says Matt Benassi, a teacher in the Commerce department.

He says it gives them a bank account, increases their banking skills and their career possibilities. It also looks at how they can grow their wealth through expansions like the Banqer High Stock Exchange.

One or two teachers at Cashmere High were using the free trial. When they realised how successful it was, Sang then contacted Banqer, who facilitated the transition and brought Banqer High into the full Year 10 cohort.

It was easy to get started and teachers didn’t need any special financial skills, says Benassi. “It’s all set up and it’s really easy to use.”