Youth education
The BCSC conducts research and works with high school teachers across the province, providing a free resource and training for teachers, in order to help students become more financially savvy.
The City: Financial Life Skills for Planning 10
The BCSC provides Planning 10 teachers with a resource called The City: Financial Life Skills for Planning 10. It’s comprehensive and easy-to-use.
The resource covers topics like budgeting, savings, credit and debt, investing, and identity theft and fraud. Students also prepare a financial plan - a document they need to meet their graduation requirements.
The approach blends fictional characters with real-life financial activities relevant to Grade 10 students. Short stories revolve around eight fictional characters who live in ‘The City’- a world that’s similar to the world students know but modified to avoid associating it with a particular place or time. By the time students complete the lessons, they have the basic knowledge and skills they’ll need to manage their finances after high school.
See a Planning 10 Program Evaluation. 
BCSC's financial literacy research
2011 National Report Card on Youth Financial Literacy
This is the first comprehensive Canadian benchmark study on youth financial life skills. The British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) hired Innovative Research Group to assess the effectiveness of secondary school financial education programs - specifically, financial literacy outcomes (knowledge, attitudes and behaviour) - and in preparing young Canadians as financial consumers. The BCSC believes that the information and analysis in this study will help educators and policymakers develop and deliver financial literacy programs for Canadian youth.
Ce rapport est la première étude de référence canadienne à être consacrée à une évaluation détaillée des aptitudes financières des jeunes. La Commission des valeurs mobilières de la Colombie-Britannique (BCSC) a retenu les services de l’entreprise Innovative Research Group pour évaluer l’efficacité des programmes d’enseignement financier offerts dans les écoles secondaires du Canada, tout particulièrement sous l’angle des résultats obtenus en littératie financière (connaissances, attitudes, sensibilisation), ainsi que de la préparation des jeunes Canadiens à devenir des consommateurs de produits et services financiers (comportements). La BCSC estime que les données et les analyses que renferme cette étude aideront les éducateurs et les décideurs à élaborer et mettre en place des programmes propres à améliorer la littératie financière chez les jeunes Canadiens.
- Executive Summary: National Report Card on Youth Financial Literacy
- Synthèse: Rapport national sur la littératie financière des jeunes
- News Release: BC Securities Commission releases its National Report Card on Youth Financial Literacy
Graduate outcomes surveys
This research assesses the life skills of recent high school graduates and their high school experience in preparing them to manage their finances. By surveying high school graduates, the BCSC wants to find out if young people in BC are becoming more financially literate. The BCSC has always emphasized education as an important tool of securities regulation.
- 2011 Graduate Outcomes Survey
- News Release: Work experience and financial literacy programs helping Kelowna-area grads make it in the “real world”
- 2008 Graduate Outcomes Survey
- News release: Kelowna-area grads are staying in school and improving their financial life skills
- 2007 Graduate Outcomes Survey
The City/La Zone
In 2008, the BCSC and the Federal Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) adapted the resource into a national online resource called The City/La Zone. This fun online resource is available to all young Canadians and their teachers in both official languages. It uses a similar cast of characters and stories set in The City. It uses interactive activities and worksheets that let young people practice real-life skills.
Managing our financial lives is not easy. Knowing where to start, finding reliable sources of information, figuring out what that information means, and whose advice to trust can be difficult.
These two free, powerful resources will help young people acquire the knowledge, skills and confidence they’ll need to begin planning for their post-secondary education or career, and navigate through the financial realities of adulthood.
More youth financial literacy resources
ABC Life Literacy Canada
Resources for all ages from this non-profit organization that works to increase the literacy of all Canadians.
Cranial Cash Clash
The Investor Education Fund’s online financial assessment tool that allows you to test your financial knowledge against others from across the globe.
Make it Count
Activities and information to help parents and teachers incorporate money management lessons into daily routines.
Money and Youth
A publication from the Canadian Foundation for Economic Education that provides information to help youth better understand their finances.
My Money $ My Future
The Certified General Accountants of Alberta offer this free resource to help high school students determine their options when it comes to making financial decisions.
TesAffaires.com
Financial literacy website from the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), the regulator for Québec's financial industry.
Your Money
The basics on managing your money, from the Canadian Bankers Association.