Associate Professor Michelle Cull School of Business, Western Sydney University
Preferred Citation
Cull, M. (2025). BRAVEFinancialLiteracyProgram:REPORT Produced for Canterbury-Bankstown Chamber of Commerce. Western Sydney University, Parramatta.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was funded by CanterburyBankstown Chamber of Commerce (CBCC) through a grant from the NSW Government.
Thank you to the support of members from CBCC and individuals who volunteered to participate in this research. Thank you also to Dr Lil Rodriguez and Dr Mamun Billah for assisting with the focus groups undertaken as part of this project.
Overview
“There needs to be room to learn from each other’s stories.”
(BRAVE Focus Group Participant, 2024)
The CBCC aims to help BRAVE participants instil financial responsibility and build healthy financial habits, enabling them to make informed financial decisions and confidently navigate life 1 .
The CBCC recognises that it can be difficult for Canterbury-Bankstown women to be financially BRAVE with Canterbury-Bankstown representing over 120 nationalities and 200 language groups and more than 65% speaking a language other than English at home 2 . By introducing BRAVE and opportunities like BRAVE Return-To-Work and BRAVE Microcredentials: Personal Finance Basics, the CBCC hopes to change attitudes within Canterbury-Bankstown to lift, support, and encourage the dreams and aspirations of each and every community member without judgement 3 .
The ‘Personal Finance Basics’ microcredential was designed with and for the community of Canterbury-Bankstown and surrounding western Sydney local government areas through a series of focus groups which were themselves an educative component of the BRAVE program.
This report provides an overview of the community focus groups on financial literacy and the outcomes of these educative focus groups that both improved the financial literacy of participants and informed the BRAVE Personal Finance Basics microcredential. It also analyses the profile of the participants involved in the BRAVE financial literacy program and reports on the results of a survey of participants of the BRAVE program. Further, the report also details the financial literacy workshops offered through the program and considers qualitative feedback from participants involved in various aspects of the program.
Introduction
With a focus on real-world application, the BRAVE financial literacy program, including the Personal Finance Basics microcredential, aims to equip community members with the essential knowledge and life skills to manage their personal finances effectively. In addition to understanding the principles of money management, participants of the program are empowered to make wise financial decisions relating to employment and building and protecting their wealth.
This report provides an analysis of the various components of the BRAVE financial literacy program and is comprised of the following five main sections:
• Educative focus groups
• BRAVE Personal Finance Basics microcredential
• Survey results
• Workshops
• Reflections and recommendations.
Educative Focus Groups
Three educative focus group sessions were conducted involving 47 diverse community member participants. Participants were mostly female (89%), aged from 20 years old to over 65 years old and represented a range of ethnic groups, socio-economic backgrounds, education levels and employment type. Participants included employers, employees, entrepreneurs/self-employed and under/unemployed people. Of those who shared additional details (15 participants), the average age was 42, with 50% selfemployed, 21% employed full-time, 13% employed part-time and 7% homemaker.
Figure 1 Focus Group Session 3
It was important for the focus groups to include both industry and community members to gain a user perspective and to integrate employability, and creativity. 4 The focus groups were promoted by the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce on LinkedIn, Facebook, web pages, and the monthly magazine as part of the BRAVE mentoring and return-to-work programs. In addition, participants were recruited through various BRAVE program events.
All participants provided free and informed written consent to participate in the focus group sessions, and to having their data collected, including through observation and note-taking. The focus groups served a dual purpose: 1) to create awareness and some basic learnings around financial literacy and 2) to co-design a personal finance microcredential targeted at meeting the needs of those participating in the BRAVE program.
All focus group participants were granted free enrolment to complete the micro credential (this is valued at approximately A$200 each – including both online selfpaced learning and workshops – with these valuations heavily subsidised by Western Sydney University; competitor courses are priced up to $2,300 on the Open Learning platform).
Participants were provided with light refreshments to sustain them through the 2-hour co-design sessions which were held at three different accessible, public locations across the Canterbury-Bankstown local government area.
As outlined below, a seven-stage approach was used for the focus group sessions. Data was collected from the focus groups and analysed to inform the design of the microcredential, the results of which are reported in the next section.
Applying the 7-stage co-design framework
The study applied the seven-step co-design framework utilized by Trischler et al. (2019) 5 and Hurley et. al. (2021) 6 which extends the work of Dietrich et al. (2017) 7 by adding a ‘reflection’ stage. This framework is useful for facilitating co-design sessions with vulnerable user groups 8 (Dietrich et al., 2017).
Table 1 provides an overview of each step involved in the process.
Table 1: The seven-stage co-design framework
Stage Application to the context of developing a micro credential to improve financial capability
1. Resourcing
• Literature review
• Previous personal finance programs identified and assessed, and clustered into key topic areas
• Development of focus group guide, including activities and materials to be used in the workshops
2. Planning
3. Recruiting
4. Sensitising
5. Facilitation
6. Evaluation
• Meetings with the research team to plan the co-design sessions
• Identifying main objectives of program
• Identification of stakeholders who could facilitate access to participants
• Development of recruitment materials e.g. flyer, registration for focus group participation
• Suitable participants were identified and recruited via email, LinkedIn, Facebook, and BRAVE program networking events
• Sensitisation occurred during the facilitation stage using photo card images
• Introduction: Participants were made aware of the purpose and nature of the study and sensitised with the topic using photo cards
• Facilitators encouraged an open discussion on the various activities within groups
• Ideation: Participants were asked to generate ideas for an introductory personal finance program that they felt would be relevant and engaging
• Data analysis of workshop findings- deductive coding was completed concurrently with inductive coding and according to key concepts and theories to develop themes out of the qualitative data.
7. Reflection • Compare and contrast co-design findings with expert knowledge to refine and conceptualise micro credential program
Source: Cull et al. (2024) 9 Framework adapted from Dietrich et al (2017), Hurley et al. (2018) & Trischler et al (2019)
Focus groups began with a sensitisation activity in which participants were provided with up to 75 ‘photo cards’ 10 containing generic photos and were asked to individually choose no more than 3 photos that represented what ‘money’ meant to them. Visualisations, and probes are used to engage the participants and facilitate a ‘joint inquiry and imagination’ whereby ‘problem and solution coevolve’ 11 . A sample of the resource providing the photo card images is provided in Figure 2.
Group discussion followed to gain insights into the choices made. Some examples of the sensitisation exercise included participants choosing the following images and associated verbalisation about their choices:
• Clock image – ‘money can buy you time’; ’time is money’;
• Bridge and water image – ‘Sometimes with money you only see the surface but not the rough seas ahead or the depth’;
• Skateboard image – ‘if you take care of your money you can help your family have fun’.
Figure 2: Sample of image resource (Innovative Resources, 2023)
The workshop continued with the facilitation phase where participants were split into teams of 3–5 and provided with pens, coloured markers, post it notes and butcher paper. Participants were encouraged to express their ideas in response to prompts using words and/or drawings and/or images. The Western Sydney University facilitators ensured that the groups remained on-task.
The next section outlines how data from the focus groups were collected and analysed.
Data collection and analysis
Data collected from the focus groups included workshop materials and observational notes.
Workshop materials such as post-it notes, butcher’s paper and photos of ideas generated during the workshop were collected for analysis along with observational field notes taken by each Western Sydney University facilitator. Some of the observational notes included verbatim quotes from BRAVE participants in the program.
Observational field notes were transcribed along with data contained on post-it notes and butcher’s paper and then analysed independently by three different researchers.
Data analysis involved categorising into key themes to identify key content, design and delivery aspects, and to explore the link to theory. Each researcher categorised the key themes using an iterative coding process recorded on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The results of the data analysis are reported in the next section.
Figure 3: BRAVE participants with focus group ‘Post-it’ notes and butcher’s paper
Results
Sensitisation Exercise
The sensitisation exercise was a way of socialising money and giving participants the freedom to talk about money in a non-threatening manner. The discussions that took place throughout the focus groups enabled participants to feel safe to share their thoughts on money and accepted by the group. It helped participants to really open up about their experiences and also obtain the support from others in the group, knowing that others had similar experiences. It led to conversations about a range of aspects of money and participants also learned through hearing the experiences of others.
A sample of responses throughout the socialisation exercise are below – noting that the bold terms relate to the image presented:
• “It can be a rollercoaster. There are good times and there are times that money is scarce.”
• “Finances represent freedom. Time for yourself and your family.”
• “Money is influenced by cultural belief. I was raised listening to ‘you need to save money’.”
• “Money opens doors”
• “It is stressful, I need help, I have too much debt.” (Image: Life-saving device on boat)
• “I grew up in a poor household, this means I am afraid of finances.”
• “I am afraid of not having enough money for retirement.”
• “What happens to my family after I pass away? I worry.”
• “Women are conditioned to work and care for the family.”
Major themes
There were five broad categories that comprised the main themes that were determined from the data analysis. These categories included:
• experiences of money/personal finance;
• the main challenges that money presents;
• the topics that should be covered in the BRAVE personal finance basics microcredential;
• ideas for engaging and assessing learners, and
• appropriate delivery options for the microcredential.
The major themes for each category are illustrated below in Figure 4.
4: Results of thematic analysis
Many of the participant-designed ideas differed substantially from the expert-designed ideas, particularly in terms of mindset and practical application of concepts that enable individuals to more effectively improve and integrate personal financial management into their everyday life. In particular, something that came through very strong in the results was the need to address money mindset and financial trauma which was something many of the BRAVE participants felt was the first step to financial freedom and required before moving onto other topics. Many participants were enthusiastic about being better informed about financial topics to help build their confidence.
Mindset to overcome fears. – ‘Anna’
The impact of social and cultural beliefs was also a strong theme for this diverse group of participants. For example, a discussion took place about a real-life scenario involving wedding expenses of $150,000 but no home to live in. While the participants understood that this was a matter of priorities and may in some way be linked to materialism, the discussion also highlighted the importance of relationships and culture which often take precedence to a good ‘financial decision’. Many of the discussions among the small groups centred around the impact of culture and family experiences on money attitudes and money management.
Figure
For example:
• A number of participants commented that money was not something that they are used to openly talking about.
• Comments on how it is often seen as rude to raise money issues/have discussions about money with family or friends but that it can help to talk about it.
• Migrant participants explained the difficulty in understanding all things money and finance in a new country.
• Students working while at school – learning value of money but also bad/good habits start early. Changingthementalprogrammingaboutpersonalfinance:cultural conditioning,family,generational. – ‘Priya’
In addition to the key topics that rated strongly in the thematic analysis in Figure 4, some participants also suggested that new microcredentials also be developed to address the following:
1. Building and identifying available support tools for small business and NGOs. E.g. grants, government subsidies and assistance.
2. Understanding business fundamentals: budgeting, planning, evaluation of performance
3. Entrepreneurship/setting up a business
In terms of activities and assessments, there was a suggestion to incorporate a ‘Money personality’ quiz. Many participants felt strongly about including case studies and reallife-like scenarios. For delivering the learning material, participants suggested that online is far more practical and should be most used given its significant reach. However, it was also highlighted that in-person classes enable further discussion and application which can be highly effective and valuable.
Findings suggested that the learning be delivered in bite-sized, online ‘modules’ that could be self-paced and assessed immediately following completion.
Other outcomes
Even the relatively short involvement in the design process through the focus group sessions triggered awareness among the participants about their own personal finance journey and the active contributions they can make to improving their own and others’ financial wellbeing. Regardless of their employment situation, gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic status, all participants were afraid of poverty and/or they ability to manage their financial resources successfully. This reinforces the importance of social learning that took place during co-design workshops and the face-to-face format assisted greatly with this. The core feature of these focus groups was that it enabled
participants to play a part in their self-development, adaptation and self-renewal, building their own confidence and self-efficacy and motivating participants to take positive action.
In addition to the improved financial awareness of participants, there was a strong sense of the role of mindset with some participants learning more about personal finances just by participating in the focus groups – before even beginning the microcredential course.
Being part of the focus groups also encouraged networking and belonging of participants. Fear about personal finances was shared amongst groups – and between individuals from different demographic backgrounds and participants considered how they might better support one another.
There was a positive impact of a diverse cohort on the participants. This enabled successful entrepreneurs to play an inspirational role as they shared insights that aided those at the beginning of their own journey. Employers who participated in the focus groups were also able to offer assistance to other participants – whether it was offering work experience or employment opportunities, help with resumes or cover letters or introducing BRAVE participants to others in their network who might have ways to assist participants in their return-to-work journey.
Participants were fully engaged in workshop for full 2 hours with individual discussion among participants extending past the official end of the workshop. Due to the success and enjoyment of participants in the workshop, many communicated the value of the connections made in the face-to-face environment and to ensure that there were faceto-face workshops offered as part of the microcredential as they also learned so much from others in the focus group alone that they wouldn’t have learned in an online environment.
The next section outlines the microcredential program that was developed using the data collected from the focus groups, along with expert financial education knowledge and research.
Personal Finance Basics Microcredential
The focus groups aided in designing a microcredential course on Personal Finance Basics, aimed at equipping BRAVE Return to Work participants with the essential knowledge and life skills to manage their personal finances confidently and effectively. In addition to understanding the principles of money management, participants were empowered to make wise financial decisions relating to employment and building and protecting their wealth.
The microcredential was designed to be self-paced and learners can choose to complete some or all of the course which can be completed in any order. It was expected that it would take 15 - 20 hours for learners to fully complete the course, although it was understood that some learners may take less or more time. Learners were able to remain enrolled for a period of at least 12 months to allow them to complete the program at their own pace and attend optional face-to-face workshops.
All BRAVE participants were provided with free access to the microcredential along with a series of free face-to-face financial literacy workshops.
To finish the course and obtain a digital badge, participants were required to complete the following elements:
• Identify their money mindset
• Appreciate the influence of career choice on money and life goals
• Understand how to overcome financial trauma
• Work through a structured budgeting process.
• Analyse and compare spending decisions.
• Evaluate basic investment and superannuation information.
• Interpret a payslip and employment contract to determine pay and entitlements
• Reflect upon their learning in a collaborative manner.
• Develop a plan to reach their financial goals.
In addition to a ‘Getting Started’ module, there are nine (9) modules that form the microcredential, as identified below and outlined in Figure 5.
Module 1: Money Mindset
This module is aimed at helping participants become aware of their own behaviours and attitudes when it comes to their financial situation. This is important as thought processes and habits affect how people think about money and what they do with their money. Understanding this is the first step to managing personal finances. A sample of the sub-topic covered in this module is provided below.
Figure 5: Module topics covered in Personal Finance Basics microcredential
Figure 6: Sub-topics of Money Mindset Module 1. Money Mindset
Budgeting and Saving
Spending Decisions
Evaluating basic investment information
Employment
Superannuation 7. Protecting Your Wealth 8. Bringing it all Together
Reflection
Module 2: Budgeting and Saving
This module assists participants to work out the main components of their budget; income and expenses, including identifying between expenses that are 'needs' and those that are 'wants'. They also learn about setting goals and how to grow their savings.
Module 3: Spending Decisions
Module 3 helps participants to identify how their values impact spending, and teaches some negotiation techniques in addition to considering different ways of financing spending, including using borrowed funds.
Module 4: Evaluating basic investment information
In this module, participants explore the basic types of investments and how to choose the right one/s, including the pros and cons of different investments.
Module 5: Employment
Module 5 teaches participants how to understand employment contracts, how to check their pay and working conditions, what to consider when it comes to benefits and entitlements and a little about self-employment. A sample of the sub-topics is below.
Figure 7: Sub-topics of Employment module
Module 6: Superannuation
This module helps participants learn about their super contributions, how super is invested and the various options, checking their super balance, tax on super, accessing super and how much super is needed in retirement.
Module 7: Protecting Your Wealth
Module 7 teaches participants about protecting assets through insurance, what happens to assets upon death, and how to protect yourself against scams and financial abuse.
Module 8: Bringing it all Together
This module brings together everything that has been learned in the course to develop a personal action plan.
Module 9: Reflection
The final module allows participants to reflect on their learning in the course and provide feedback as to what was most valuable and if there is anything they want to know more about.
The course is designed for participants to work through each module sequentially, but they can be undertaken in any order of preference. However, participants must work through all of the material, including assessments in order to satisfy course completion requirements and earn the digital microcredential badge.
Activities and assessment
The activities and assessment items included in the microcredential are designed to be fun and non-threatening. The activities are varied so that students do not become bored and to ensure all learning styles are catered for. These activities and assessments include:
• generating a meme to represent current personal finance situation,
• reading short bite-size pieces of information,
• checking websites,
• viewing short videos,
• downloading and completing budget templates,
• reflective activities,
• multiple choice quizzes,
• drag and drop questions,
• matching questions,
• case studies,
• simple calculations, and
• crosswords.
In addition, learners are able to post comments about different topics and ‘like’ other learners’ posts. Learners also have access to an online chat function for a direct line to the facilitator who can assist them with any difficulties they may be experiencing.
There are also three optional 2-hour workshops available as part of this course covering budgeting basics, financial health checks and planning for the future using a financial vision board. These are reported on under ‘Workshops’ later in this report.
By the end of the course, participants will be confident in their ability to manage their personal finances, contributing to their overall financial well-being and stability.
Course learning outcomes 12
The course aimed to foster a basic understanding of personal finance, enabling learners to make informed decisions about their money. It sought to empower participants and instil an attitude of financial responsibility, encouraging participants to establish and maintain healthy financial habits. The course covered life skills related to personal finance, such as mindset, goal setting, employment, and decision-making, and used case studies and activities to ensure participants apply what they learn in realworld situations. By the end of the course, participants were expected to:
• Understand the factors that influence financial decision-making for an individual.
• Develop a personal budget and savings plan.
• Compare the benefits and costs of various spending decisions.
• Evaluate basic investment information and compare alternatives.
• Understand how to read a payslip and compare different forms of income, including from self-employment.
• Understand how superannuation works.
• Explore how various financial decisions contribute to personal wealth and apply to self.
• Understand how to protect against financial loss and what happens to one’s assets when they die.
Upon completing this course, the learner should be able to:
1. Understand their money mindset and money behaviours.
2. Develop a personal budget and savings plan.
3. Make wise spending decisions.
4. Evaluate basic investment and superannuation information.
5. Understand employment payslips and what to look for in an employment contract.
6. Create an action plan for their financial future.
Acquired Skills/Knowledge
• Decision making
• Problem solving
• Financial acumen
• Self-awareness
• Negotiation
• Goal setting
Learners who successfully completed all activities and assessment items received a Western Sydney University digital microcredential badge which is a nationally recognised achievement and verifiable through the use of a security feature. The digital badge can be featured on resumes and on professional social media profiles such as LinkedIn. Learners can also download a PDF certificate.
There were 22 BRAVE participants in the pilot offering of the Personal Finance Basics microcredential. The budget and savings module was the most popular of the nine modules. Not all participants completed all modules. The next section reports on the results of the commencing survey for microcredential participants involved in the BRAVE pilot group.
Upon successful completion of the Personal Finance Basics microcredential, the following feedback was received from a BRAVE participant.
“The microcredential offers a concise and informative introduction to personalfinance.Itcoversessentialtopicssuchas budgeting,saving,andinvestinginaclearandstraightforward manner, makingitaccessibletoindividualsofallbackgrounds.Ireally likedhowitincludeddifferentresourcesandwebsitesthatcanhelpme managemymoneybetter.Itisnotcomplexandcanbeeasily understoodbysomeonewhoisnewtounderstandingtheirfinances better.Themicrocredentialprovidesasolidfoundation for those lookingtoimprovetheirfinancialliteracy.” (BRAVE participant, 2024)
Survey results
Of the participants from the BRAVE Return to Work program, 14 participants volunteered to complete a survey upon commencing the Personal Finance Basics microcredential course in 2024. Demographic details are provided below, followed by data pertaining to financial literacy and financial capability of the participants.
Participant demographics
The sample were primarily English-speaking females aged between 18 – 55 with postsecondary education. A breakdown of the demographics is provided in tables 2-7 below.
Table 2: Gender
Table 4: First Language
Table 5: Ethnic background
non-responses
Table 6: Education
Table 7: Living arrangements
*4 non-responses
Financial Literacy – The ‘Big Three’ questions
A globally recognised measure of financial literacy is Lusardi and Mitchell’s ‘Big Three’ financial literacy questions. 13 These questions have been used in more than 20 countries and have consistently shown women to score lower than men. Financial literacy has been found to be lower for those who are not working. Further, financial literacy can be important for people entering the workforce as they must make additional financial decisions relating to their pay, taxes and superannuation.
The three questions are all designed as multiple-choice questions to make it easy for participants to select their response. The questions themselves can be found in Box 1 (over page). The first question requires a simple understanding of compound interest, the second examines the understanding of inflation and how it affects financial decisions while the final question gauges knowledge of diversification and risk. The questions have been found to strongly correlate with financial behaviours. 14
Survey participants were asked the ‘Big Three’ questions to gauge their level of financial literacy before completing the microcredential course. Twelve (12) respondents chose to answer these questions. The results are shown in Table 8. Around two-thirds of the participants answered the questions correctly. Also of note is the context of these results:
• Australia was experiencing high inflation at the time of the survey.
• Most individuals in Australia hold a superannuation account and thus exposed to risk and diversification.
• Financial literacy is expected to be higher for those aged over 30.
Importantly there were some participants who responded that they didn’t know the answer. While all participants could benefit from financial literacy training, those who did not know the answer and did not have the confidence to attempt to answer the question would be expected to receive the greatest benefit from basic financial literacy education.
However, it is important to note that answering these questions correctly only provides data about an individual’s financial knowledge. It does not provide an indication of financial capability, nor does it report on financial behaviour. Both financial capability and financial behaviour of participants was addressed additional survey questions, as reported on pages 25-28 of this report.
Box 1: The ‘Big Three’ Financial Literacy Questions
(1) Suppose you had $100 in a savings account and the interest rate was 2% per year. After 5 years, how much do you think you would have in the account if you left the money to grow?
• More than $102
• Exactly $102
• Less than $102
• Do not know
• Refuse to answer
(2) Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account was 1% per year and inflation was 2% per year. After 1 year, how much would you be able to buy with the money in this account?
• More than today
• Exactly the same
• Less than today
• Do not know
• Refuse to answer
(3) Please tell me whether this statement is true or false. ‘Buying a single company’s stock usually provides a safer return than a [managed fund or] stock mutual fund’.
• True
• False
• Do not know
• Refuse to answer
• [The survey in this study added an option “I do not know what a managed or mutual fund is”]
Source: Lusardi & Mitchell, 2011
Note: Changes to original question/responses for this study due to Australian context are indicated in square parentheses.
Table 8: Financial Literacy ‘Big Three’ Results
Financial capability of participants
Using the definition of financial capability as 'the combination of attitude, confidence, knowledge and skills to make financial decisions that best suits one's personal circumstances', participants were asked how they would rate their own financial capability. Just over 40% of the sample believed that their financial capability was ‘good’, with around the same amount ranking their financial capability as ‘average’ (42%) and the remainder as ‘poor’ (17%), as shown in Figure 8. Notably, none of the participants ranked themselves as having ‘excellent’ financial capability.
Figure 8: Financial Capability Self-ranking
Participants were also asked to explain their main reason/s for their financial capability ranking, with the following responses providing valuable insights:
IoftenfeelfrustratedabouttheconceptoffinancebecauseIfinddiscussions arounditwithmypeersareinherentlylinkedtocapital.Forthisreason, conversationsaroundfinancemakemefeeluneasyandmyattitudeis particularlyavoidant.Ihaveaveryrudimentaryunderstandingofmanaging finances,whichisessentiallytodistinguishbetweenneedsandwantsandto spendsparingly.Iamnotconfidentinmyabilitytomanagemyownfinances - I didn'tstudyeconomicsatschoolandhavenoengagementwith finance at a tertiarylevel.IthinkIcouldbedoingmoretomanagemyincome but am not confidentwithmakinginvestmentsbecauseIdon'tknowwherethatmoney
Many of the participant comments demonstrate a lack of confidence in one’s own financial knowledge and skill, resulting in some apprehension around making financial decisions. This goes straight to the heart of financial capability (refer to definition on previous page). The comment around not experiencing any loss or debt and link to the assumption that they ‘must be doing something right’ shows that while an individual may rank themselves as financial capable, they may lack the understanding to take action to ensure wise important decisions about their future financial position. Just because an individual has no financial loss, or debt does not necessarily mean that they are ‘financially capable’. For example, they may have an aversion to decision-making, or an aversion to risk which could potentially lead to adverse financial outcomes in the future that have not yet been fully realised.
Financial behaviour of participants
Before participants completed the microcredential, it was important to gain an understanding of their current financial behaviour. Participants were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed with the ten (10) financial behaviour statements in Table 9, given a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from Strongly disagree (1) through to Strongly agree (5). Participants were also provided with the option to select ‘Does not apply to me’.
Table 9: Statements about financial behaviour
*Where N<12, participants have selected ‘does not apply to me’.
The total mean score for the financial behaviour statements of 3.47/5.0 indicates that overall, participants are between ‘neither agree or disagree’ and ‘somewhat agree’, although the majority of participants agreed with most of the statements.
The yellow highlighted rows in Table 9 reflect the 3 lowest mean scores for financial behaviour, indicating that overall, participants tended to be relatively unlikely to have a budget, be confident about making financial decisions, or to know how their superannuation is invested. Each of these behaviours are addressed in the microcredential, with a whole module dedicated to budgeting, and another module dedicated to superannuation. Building confidence about making financial decisions is
the main focus of the microcredential. It is expected that participants’ behaviour will improve across all domains after completing the microcredential program. This improvement in financial behaviour is able to be measured through a second voluntary survey, conducted post-completion of the microcredential. Results are currently unable to be reported due to the need to protect the anonymity of respondents as n<5.
What participants hope to gain from completing microcredential
Participants were asked what they were hoping to get out of completing the microcredential. A sample of the open-ended responses follows:
Ihopetogainconfidenceinmyabilitiestomanagemypersonalfinancesand developaleveloffinancialindependence,includingstartingtoinvestinaway thatalignswithmypersonalethics.Ialsohopetocreaterealisticfinancialgoals and,byextension,asuitablefinancialplan/strategyformyselfasIentermylate 20s.I'dliketobeabletoconfidentlyenterintodiscussionsaboutmyfinancial plans(andfinancemoregenerally)withmypartnerandmyfamily.Manyof those close to me work in financeandhaveastronggraspoffinancialliteracy, whileIcomefromanArtsandSocialSciencesbackgroundandworkinthe GLAMRindustry.I'dliketofeelasthoughIcankeepupwithfinancial discussionsthataretakingplacearoundmeonaregularbasis.
There were three (3), optional 2-hour face-to-face workshops offered in addition to the online offering of the microcredential course.
Details of the workshops that were offered are as follows.
Workshop 1: Budgeting Basics
This workshop focused on building financial confidence and empowerment, allowing participants to take control of their finances by working through a structured process to build a personal budget.
Date: 5 September 2024
Number of registrations: 11
The workshop comprised the following topics and activities:
• Relationship with money
• Needs and wants
• Case study example
• Money habit exercise
• Money-in versus money-out
• The 6-step budget process
• Budgeting case study example
• Build your own budget activity
• Budgeting tips
• Budget action plan for the future
Workshop 2: Your Financial Well-being: Undertaking a Financial Health Check
This workshop guides participants through how to undertake a financial health check and improve their financial well-being.
Date: 14 October 2024 (postponed due to low registration numbers)
Workshop 3: Your Financial Vision: Planning Your Future
In this workshop, the concept of a financial vision board is used to develop a plan to help participants reach their financial goals.
Date: 29 October 2024 (postponed due to low registration numbers)
All face-to-face workshops were booked in to take place in learning studios at the Western Sydney University Parramatta City Campus during weekday evenings from 6pm -8.30pm.
Despite heavily promoting these workshops through LinkedIn and through email newsletters, both registrations and attendance at the workshops was low. Some possible reasons for this were:
• Evenings may be less attractive to those with carer responsibilities and/or attendees may feel unsafe travelling on public transport in the evening.
• For those attendees using private transport, there is minimal parking available in close proximity to the campus, and parking is not free.
• Some attendees may have felt intimidated by attending the university campus, if they have not previously attended a university or are unfamiliar with the location.
Moving forward, it was decided that any future financial literacy workshops should be offered in a similar way to the earlier focus groups as these had attracted a high number of attendees. As such, future workshops will be scheduled during the day and at more accessible locations. Further, sponsored targeted social media advertising via Facebook and more direct promotion with partner agencies may also aid in increasing registrations.
Reflections and recommendations
The BRAVE financial literacy program provided an opportunity to work collaboratively with the community of Canterbury-Bankstown and surrounds, to empower and educate participants to establish and maintain healthy financial habits. The hallmark feature of the program was the educative focus groups, attended by 47 diverse participants. These focus groups provided a safe, respectful environment for participants to have real money conversations. It allowed participants to become more self-aware, providing an opportunity to consider their current situation, money mindset, personal values, cultural influences and what would help them to build financial confidence and better plan for their future. The focus groups provided mentorship and support and enabled participants to build their network. Participants left the focus groups feeling uplifted, empowered and accepted, with many commenting on their positive experience.
While participants gained financial confidence through the educative focus groups, the focus groups also provided an opportunity to collaboratively co-design a personal finance microcredential with financial education experts. Both of these elements of the BRAVE financial literacy program, meet calls by the Government, through the National Financial Capability Strategy, to build Australians’ financial capability. This became increasingly important throughout end 2023 and throughout 2024 as Australia experienced rising inflation and interest rates.
The delivery of the personal finance microcredential through an online self-paced course, combined with optional face-to-face workshops was an exciting opportunity to build confidence of BRAVE participants to make wise financial decisions. While there was a high amount of interest from the community in completing this microcredential, which was offered free of charge, the take-up rate was much lower than expected. This low participation rate was disappointing, given the large number of community members who participated in the educative focus groups. A possible reason for this low participation rate could be related to the digital literacy of community members who may not have the means to access the microcredential – this could be physical access to a computer or reliable internet, or a lack of skills or confidence to navigate the digital landscape. Further research is required to investigate the possible reasons for the low level of participation, however there are 2 main recommendations for the future delivery of the BRAVE financial literacy program:
1. Face-to-face delivery of workshops, located in publicly accessible locations similar to those offered for the educative focus groups, inclusive of daytime offerings (e.g. lunch and learn workshops).
2. Offer specially designed financial literacy programs in computer labs or through computers in local council libraries. This would enable community participants to work through the personal finance microcredential on computers with a facilitator available to both guide them through the microcredential activities and simultaneously teach digital literacy. Both financial and digital literacy are useful life skills, and both necessary for financial inclusion.
References
1 Canterbury-Bankstown Chamber of Commerce (2022). BRAVE Microcredentials. Found at: https://cbchamber.org.au/initiatives/brave-project/brave-microcredential-personal-finance-basics/
2 Australian Bureau of Statistics (2021). Canterbury-Bankstown Latest release: 2021 Census All persons QuickStats, ABS Website, accessed 30 April 2025.
3 Ibid, at note 3
4 Eager, B., & Cook, E. (2020). Micro-credentialing of entrepreneurship education in a practice-based undergraduate engineering context. EntrepreneurshipEducationandPedagogy,3(4), 352–363.
5 Trischler, J., Dietrich, T., & Rundle-Thiele, S. (2019). Co-design: From expert- to user-driven ideas in public service design. PublicManagementReview, 21(11), 1595–1619. DOI: 10.1080/14719037.2019.1619810
6 Hurley, E., Trischler, J. & Dietrich, T. (2018). Exploring the Application of Co-Design to Transformative Service Research, JournalofServicesMarketing32(6), 715–727.
7 Dietrich, T., J. Trischler, L. Schuster & Rundle-Thiele, S. (2017). Co-Designing Services with Vulnerable Consumers. JournalofServiceTheoryandPractice,27(3): 663–688.
8 ibid
9 Cull, M., Rodriguez, L. & Billah, M. (2024). Buildingfinancialcapabilitythroughco-designofamicro credential:Anabductiveapproach, Working paper. Presented at 12th Annual Personal Finance & Investment Symposium, AFS ANZ Chapter, QUT: Gardens Point Campus, 26 November.
10 Innovative Resources. (2023). Picture This:75colourphotographsforconversationandreflection. St Luke’s Innovative Resources 2007. Available for purchase from www.innovativeresources.org
11 Steen, M. (2013). Co-Design as a Process of Joint Inquiry and Imagination. DesignIssues 29 (2), p.18.
12 Western Sydney University (2024). Western X Courses: Personal Finance Basics [Private Class - BRAVE cohort]. Found at https://westernx.edu.au/courses/pfb/?cl=1
13 Lusardi, A., and Mitchell, O. (2011). Financial literacy around the world: an overview. Journal of PensionEconomicsandFinance,10, 497-508. doi:10.1017/ S1474747211000448
