TEENAGERS from York's Burnholme Community College have been working with senior executives at the Norwich Union office complex on the banks of the River Ouse in York.

Four Year 10 pupils participated in a management conference at the Norwich Union head office in the city.

Emily Broadhead, Katie Dobreva, Laura Douglas and Heather Sutherland got to work with a group of senior executives from across the North Yorkshire area, leading them in discussions about spending priorities in the health sector.

The managers involved the teenagers in their deliberations and the students were able to stimulate discussions among the teams by asking searching questions about their decisions.

The pupils had a good foundation for this experience after working with Norwich Union volunteers over a number of weeks, honing communication skills in debating complex economic issues.

They had all taken part in Paying For It - a volunteering programme launched by the insurer for its staff in partnership with four city schools - Burnholme Community College, Huntington School, Joseph Rowntree School and Canon Lee School.

Paying For It is a new schools programme developed by independent education charity Citizenship Foundation and Norwich Union, which supports citizenship teaching around economics and finance.

In York, 26 Norwich Union volunteers used specially-written resources to work with small groups of teenagers on different economic citizenship topics, such as health, money, environment and public spending.

Pupils were asked to investigate and debate a local economic issue, using the skills they had learned during the sessions. At Burnholme, volunteers talked to pupils over a six-week period about money, crime, health, the environment, "giving" and "international issues".

Paul Gage, 35, a computer programmer for Norwich Union, was one of the Burnholme volunteers. He said it was not just the children who benefited from the lessons.

He said: "It does feel good to have the opportunity to be able to give something back to the community and do something positive.

"You get a bit of an idea of what it is like to be a teacher. It's been a good experience. The students have some surprising opinions. For example, when we talked to them about money they were all really anti- credit. They all think you should save for things rather than borrowing, when we had expected it to be the exact opposite view."

Simon Gumn, Burnholme's head teacher, said: "This was a fantastic opportunity for our young people and it exemplifies the business links with Burnholme Community College.

"It was also a wonderful window on the opportunities available for careers in the financial sector and the students were able to see how the work could be exciting and rewarding.

"The senior managers were enormously impressed by the quality of the students' contribution to the evening and ended the session with a spontaneous round of applause.

"Well done to Emily, Katie, Laura and Heather."

Tony Breslin, chief executive of the Citizenship Foundation, said: "Personal finance education is important, but it is critical that young people also have the opportunity to explore their values about money."

For more information, log on to the website www.payingforit.org.uk

8:17am Wednesday 7th May 2008

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