ICE charts a course to develop financial navigation skills

By: The WFE Focus Team Sep 2020

At Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), we believe it’s important to help the communities where we live and work through financial education. We achieve that goal through financial support and volunteering our time and talents. Our philanthropic efforts reach a diverse set of causes driven by our employees, customers and our community of global companies.

Helping students of all ages better prepare to navigate their finances over a lifetime is Intercontinental Exchange’s main charitable focus.

Young Money

We work with an organisation called Young Money in the United Kingdom. Our funds are helping six primary schools become Centres of Excellence in Financial Education, which includes teacher training and the creation of a detailed financial education curriculum integrated across classes. To date, we’ve reached more than 2,000 students at the following primary schools:

  • Rossett Acre Primary School 
  • Cheam Park Farm Primary Academy
  • Woodfield SEN School 
  • De Aston School
  • Ashbury Meadow Primary School
  • Manor School

“We know just how important it will be for our children to manage their money well throughout their lives. These skills don’t come automatically – they need to be taught, and it is our responsibility to prepare them for adult life. We believe embedding financial education into our school curriculum is a necessity. We are pleased to be working with Young Money and ICE to become a Centre of Excellence in this crucial area, for the benefit of our children,” said Corrine Penhale, Headteacher at Rossett Acre Primary School.

New York Stock Exchange Future Investors Program

The NYSE Future Investors Program presented by Intercontinental Exchange is a digital learning experience designed with EverFi. It equips students with an understanding of how the market works and builds the confidence to participate in it. Through an engaging, gamified learning experience, students blend economic concepts with investing topics to learn how the government, corporations and individuals come together to participate in the financial marketplace.

“Being able to partner with EverFi and Intercontinental Exchange to bring more life to the classroom experience for my students was an amazing opportunity that I and my students will remember for a lifetime. We were able to bring the real world to the students and the students to the real world. This partnership was a prime example of how collaborative efforts between career pathways and business professionals impact the lives of students and the choices they make regarding their future endeavours,” said a teacher from North Springs High School in Atlanta.

The programme was rolled out to 17 schools in the Atlanta metro area during the 2019-2020 school year. Initial results include participation from more than 750 students accumulating nearly 700 hours of learning time. Those students came from diverse backgrounds: 52% were black and 19% Hispanic. Students in the programme saw an average increase in their assessment scores of 50% from pre-course testing to post-course testing.
Junior Achievement USA

Through our work with Junior Achievement we foster financial education and support the next generation of great business leaders through three programmes:

  • The national leadership summit allowing high school students to create and pitch business plans
  • Development of a financial literacy curriculum for middle school students
  • Hands-on experience with the business community.

Junior Achievement is preparing young people to succeed, and we are pleased to support them.

COVID-19 has disrupted nearly every element of our lives, none more so than our schools. Knowing the hardships placed on children and families, our digital education offerings are helping provide resources to students, teachers and parents in our communities. We also understand that accessing those resources is not easy for everyone. In an effort to help, we donated US$ 1.3 million this year to Atlanta Public Schools to provide laptops and internet access to local students.

We look forward to working with the financial services sector and educators globally to continue expanding financial literacy and paving the way for financial security and opportunity across our communities.