Education saving to suit every family

20 November 2006

Education saving to suit every family

ASG's Education Programs New ZealandT today (subs Monday 20 November) announced a new and flexible programme to suit every New Zealand family's needs to assist with planning and saving for their children's future education.

With the complete education costs of a family with two millennium children likely to be around $350,000, marginally more than the current price of the average New Zealand home1, ASG managing director, Terry O'Connell, says ASG's new The Education Fund (TEF) is guaranteed to have wide appeal.

"ASG is dedicated to periodically investigating and updating its programme structure and presentation to ensure it continues to lead the way in a changing education environment. It is important to meet the needs of our members and attract new members in order to fulfill and improve on our stated mission of 'supporting children's education'.

"While the programme remains targeted at providing educational choice and opportunities, ASG has created greater flexibility by allowing families to supplement their Foundation Plan to provide for all secondary and or tertiary full-time courses. This new programme is designed to be tailored to every families needs," says Mr O'Connell.

The new ASG programme provides families with the means to plan for their children's future education costs through one flexible programme that can be tailored to each family's individual needs and budget, beginning from as little as $10 per week.

ASG, Australasia's largest independent not-for-profit organisation specialising in education benefits, began working with New Zealand families in 1990 and now has 30,000 Kiwi families saving for the future education of 40,000 children. ASG last financial year, provided over $120m in member benefits, bursaries and scholarships to help assist member families with the costs of their children's education.

ASG has extensive community relationships in New Zealand with the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society, Life Education Trust and is the naming rights sponsor of the ASG Parent and Child Show.

The National Excellence in Teaching Awards (NEiTA), introduced by ASG a decade ago, will be co-sponsored by ASG and Multi Serve Education Trust from 2007. Six teachers were last week announced as national recipients of NEiTAs.

ASG has this week entered into a partnership with KidsLine, the youth arm of LifeLine, to sponsor the 2007 KidsLine Poster Competition which takes place in primary and intermediate schools throughout New Zealand.

ENDS

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