In March 2023, Cambridge Building Society hosted their first ever Cambridge LaunchPad Project Day
Year 9 students from four schools across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough came together to learn about financial planning, investing, mortgages and the importance of making wise decisions by playing a giant version of a game inspired by ‘The Game of Life’. This was a great way to demonstrate the ups and downs of life, all while gaining valuable knowledge and skills that will help them in the future. Teams could use their allotted money to invest in property and investments, such as savings accounts and fixed-rate bonds and ISAs. They then decided on which careers to pursue to help them fund their chosen lifestyle before they eventually retired.
“Financial education is crucially important to all, not just those considering a career in that field, so it felt like something that would prove useful to students of that age. I personally had no awareness about managing my finances or what options were really available to me as a career, so wanted to do something fun and engaging to help them think about the future.”
Sophie Banks, Customer Engagement Team Leader and creator of the game
All of the students threw themselves fully into the challenge, and their attention to detail when calculating their spending was incredibly impressive.
Congratulations to the winning team from Sir Harry Smith Community College! Each team member was awarded a medal and a savings account preloaded with £20. They were clearly very proud of their accomplishment.
We had some wonderful feedback from the students after the event.
One student from Sir Harry Smith Community College said – “I learnt about finance, money, maths, organisation and how to work well with others”
Another said – “I enjoyed the interactive game because it was fun and you got to understand different things like taxes and mortgages.”
Finally, we were very happy to read that one student wrote that because of the event they will “definitely research more about STEM careers online.”
A huge thank you to The Cambridge Building Society for hosting such a fun and educational event and to Sophie Banks for creating the inspired interactive game. We are already looking forward to seeing what’s next!
