Young people are taking more steps to secure their financial future, new research has indicated.
In a study carried out by NatWest, a rising proportion of school leavers considering taking a gap year before starting university are looking to use the time to work so they can save money to help alleviate the cost of further education. According to the financial services firm, more than 50,000 new students are set to take on work in the 12 months prior to beginning higher education and will earn some 212 million pounds. This in turn could well help them to manage their money better while at university and foster a better attitude towards applying for and paying back personal loans and other forms of borrowing in later life.
Mark Worthington, head of NatWest Student Banking, said: “It is easy for students to get caught up with the excitement of taking a gap year and forget about what great money-saving opportunities it can present. It is therefore encouraging that young people are thinking ahead and using their gap years as a valuable opportunity to save for their future studies.”
Meanwhile, research from the firm also showed that school-leavers are more concerned about the monetary pressures of going to university than they are about getting good grades. Overall, 55 per cent of school leavers believe that they are not adequately prepared financially for higher education, while 17 per cent believe that it will take them more than ten years to pay back their student debts. Those graduating, meanwhile, believe that they will owe an average of 15,000 pounds after leaving university. The study also showed that a third of graduates claim that they would have re-considered about whether to go to university if they knew beforehand about how much debt they would be in. Read the full story
