Consumer Education

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Consumer Education for Teachers

Consumer education is important because it encourages individuals to analyse and make value-based decisions at a personal level in terms of needs and wants. It can also help individuals to make decisions linked to wider community issues, such as sustainability.

The difference between consumer education and consumer information is the transferability of skills. Consumer education enables consumers to use information in order to make confident and informed purchasing decisions.

The aim of this module is to help teachers understand more about the importance of consumer education and to provide informative lessons for different age groups across a broad range of consumer related issues.

This section of Dolceta contains a selection of lesson plans, activities and resources that can help teachers to address the different components of consumer education.

Introduction to consumer education
Consumer education is concerned with the skills, attitudes and knowledge required for living in a consumer society. Consumer education is inextricably linked to the basic skills necessary for living. Consumer education is about promoting an understanding of the structures and systems within the market. Evidence suggests that many adults are not only unaware of how their individual consumer habits can affect the economy, the environment and society, but that many are also inadequately equipped to participate effectively in the market (...)
Teaching financial and money skills
Everyone needs financial skills whatever their background. The key competencies for this section are: Competence 1: managing finances - Learners should be given the opportunity to evaluate how they spend their money and how they can improve their own finances through better understanding of finance and consumer issues. Competence 2: undertake financial risk assessements - Learners should also be able to budget in order to manage their own personal finances and evaluate the consequences when making financial decisions. They should also be able to understand different (...)
Teaching safety and health skills
It is important for consumers to learn about safety and health. This will help consumers to understand the steps they can take to help keep themselves safe healhty. The key competencies for this section are: Competence 1: use and evaluate information - Learners will consider how advertising affects their choices and how this might relate to diet and healthy living. Competence 2: apply consumer knowledge to health management - Learners are able to understand the importance of food labelling around salts, fats and sugar and to evaluate options around health and (...)
Teaching consumer responsibility
Consumption and consumer choice can have a significant impact on our lives and our world so it is important for consumers to learn about their responsibilities. The key competencies for this section are: Competence 1: reflect and evaluate consumption patterns - Learners are able to explore different environmental and ethical information and recognise/understand the importance and impact that it should have on consumption. Competence 2: analyse product quality and promote sustainability - Learners are able to distinguish between differing concepts for product quality (from (...)
Teaching consumer rights
It is important that learners are able to recognise and understand the role of consumer rights when buying goods or services and the organisations that provide consumer help and advice. The key competencies for this section are: Competence 1: demonstrate consumer responsibility towards the use of services - Learners should be able to explore language around consumer education and recognise/understand important meanings with regard to contracts for buying goods and services. Competence 2: recognise consumers influence on service quality - Learners are able to identify services (...)