The British Columbia Securities Commission is launching a series of educational seminars to teach high school students and teachers about the importance of financial life skills and avoiding debt.

“Learning about saving, budgeting and how to manage debt in high school can help young people meet their life and educational goals,” said Patricia Bowles, BCSC director of communications and education.

The seminars will feature a group called the Smart Cookies—five women who joined together to pull themselves out of debt through budgeting, wise investing and honing their financial knowledge. The women are well-known television hosts on the W Network and best selling authors. They will speak at events in Richmond, Kelowna, Victoria and Nanaimo in October and November.

“The Smart Cookies seminars are engaging presentations that demonstrate the relevance and necessity of teaching financial life skills to young people, especially in uncertain financial times,” said Bowles in a statement.

The seminars will demonstrate how the BCSC’s financial education resource for grade 10 students and a new web-based resource, called The City, help young people understand financial concepts that they can use throughout their lives.

In September 2008, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada in partnership with the BCSC launched The City, a free, web-based teacher resource that engages youth by using an imaginative and interactive hands-on approach to learning, providing practical real-life skills and making financial concepts easy to understand. The web site is available in both English and French at www.themoneybelt.gc.ca.

The new web site was designed based on a teacher resource, that the BCSC developed for educators who teach a mandatory grade 10 finances course in B.C. high schools. British Columbia is one of two Canadian provinces that requires the teaching of financial life skills in high school.