20080326 Developing Youths Into Savvy Investors at MoneyTree AsiaPac

Developing Youths into Savvy Entrepreneurs & Investors

Singapore, 26 March 2008

Prepare yourselves to take a back seat, mums and dads - your children could soon be taking over the family finances, thanks to a new programme on financial education for children and teenagers.
Aptly call the MONEYTREE Programme, it is one of the first resources to be made available to the Malaysian public to allow parents to educate and prepare their children for the financial journey that they will face during their adulthood.
The key to the this programme is it’s effective learning model through various interactive scenarios, whereby participants are given credit cards, cash, investment certifications and put through a ‘mini economy’ in which earning, spending, saving and investing are part of the syllabus in the programme.
In fact, it is so successful that Mr. Jonathan Chong, the proud father of one 10 years old graduate of the camp said “It’s amazing. My son is now telling me how inflation is making us poorer by the day and how misuse of credit cards can result in serious debt.”
Apart from teaching children on financial savvyness, the programme also helps develop entrepreneurship in them. A good example is the recently concluded Business Game organized by AIESEC Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, where two teams of secondary students aged between 12- 17 edged other teams comprising varsity students to be placed among the TOP 5 teams.

Both teams were trained under the Money Tree program, a financial and investment training program developed by Money Tree Asia Pacific Limited.

Recognizing both the need of such programme and the quality of the MONEYTREE Programme, OPEN UNIVERSITY of MALAYSIA (OUM) will be signing a Memorandum with MONEYTREE to enable participants of the programme to qualify for some of its academic and career certifications, thus enabling MONEYTREE graduates to obtain a head start in building their career future.

Professor Selvaraja of OUM said: “Good quality financial education gives pupils many of the skills they need to succeed at school and in their careers. It also helps young people to handle money matters sensibly in their personal lives and avoid the problems of debt. I want our schools to deliver effective, imaginative and inspirational programmes of financial education which provide long term benefits for young people.”
So parents, look out for the next MONEYTREE learning centres near you as it may provide your child with the knowledge they need to chart their financial future.

Note to Editors

1. The MONEYTREE programme is a proprietary programme developed by MoneyTree Singapore Pte. Ltd. with license from Money Tree Asia Pacific Ltd. Further information can be obtained from:

MoneyTree Singapore Pte. Ltd.
Website: www.MoneyTree.Sg