Managing my money for young adults: in partnership with the Harrison Foundation

Updated Thursday, 11 December 2025

This OpenLearn Create course introduces the knowledge and skills that are essential for good financial decision making.

Find out more about The Open University's Managing my money for young adults course on OpenLearn Create funded by the Harrison Foundation and support by the Harrison Centre for Social Mobility.

You make thousands of decisions every day, some are are trivial, and some are hard and could affect your future. Personal financial decisions (decisions related to your income, spending, savings or investing) are usually hard and could have a significant impact on your life. So what about young people?

A cartoon illustration of two young adults thinking about financial decisions. Each of the two adults has four thought bubbles surrounding them. In the four bubbles are: a car, a house, a financial savings account, and a desert island (used to represent a holiday).

Most young adults (people aged 15–17) in the UK are in full-time education or training, they directly participate in the education and training sector of the UK economy. Young adults also contribute to many other sectors by buying a variety of goods and services (like clothes and games). Many people in this age group also work and, therefore, contribute to the production of goods and services.

More importantly, young adults are literally the future of the UK economy. This is because young adults will play a big role in creating innovative products and services. Some of these innovations will create large successful businesses and, at the same time, help the society to solve major challenges like reducing reliance on fossil fuels and enabling the provision of clean energy.

Economy quiz

Test your knowledge about the UK economy.

Click on the image above, to start your interactive experience...

Instructions

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What you'll learn on the course

The five-hour course is divided into nine short sessions and introduces the knowledge and skills that are essential for good financial decision making. After studying this course, you should be able to:

Understand the basics of how an economy works.
Discover the importance of financial planning and budgeting.
Learn about the benefits of opening and using a bank account.
Compare the different types of savings accounts.
Explore what Inflation and interest rates are.
Understand the basics of how the stock market works.
Know what income tax and National Insurance (NI) contributions are.
Learn how to protect yourself against frauds and scams.
Consider the relationship between money and happiness.

Gain a digital badge

By studying the course you will have the opportunity to gain a digital badge – you need to click on the ‘Enrol’ button to be able to do the quizzes and earn the badge.

This is a digital badge for the Managing my money for young adults course on OpenLearn Create. This circular badge features The Open University shield logo at the top followed by the course title and the sponsor's Harrison Foundation logo at the bottom of the badge.