Online Community Education A Roaring Success

A recently launched community education initiative by 3 Auckland schools has gained great traction in helping Kiwis with their personal finances.

Students took to the online classroom with “Hot Money Tips – How to Stretch Your Dollar Further in Uncertain Times”, a new initiative being run by Rutherford College, Onehunga High School and Aorere College.

The first session started over the past weekend through Rutherford College, with a further session to be held in the upcoming week with the other schools.

With community education being an important staple of learning and continuing education for many, challenges presented by COVID-19 meant that the schools and presenters had to adapt the way they teach.

Hot Money Tips is taught by expert financial adviser Arthur Parker Ramani. It also features input from renowned entrepreneur and motivational speaker Clark Valmont.

Shortly after being launched, students rapidly signed up for the courses, finding it to be an excellent opportunity to gain knowledge and motivation around their personal finances. One of the courses hit full capacity.

Arthur Parker Ramani, who led the course explains, “I enjoyed teaching the course. We went through important topics like why people’s KiwiSaver balances dropped, how to budget better, mortgage holidays, and other matters.”

“I must say my favourite part was being asked for recipes to keep costs down for meals. I am a financial adviser but at the same time I do like to cook. It was a bit of fun to share this website called ‘Supercook’ that allows you to figure what you can cook based on ingredients in your pantry. It’s a bit like reverse engineering in the kitchen”, he adds.

“You’ve got to do something one way or another with all that canned spaghetti, baked beans, and tuna, right?”, Arthur said jovially.

Clark Valmont brought forward inspiring messages and found it to be a good opportunity to reach out to people. “We were thankful to have the opportunity to reach out to families who need that all important motivation. It is a time of need for many, and we have to help the community.”, he comments.

Andrea Cameron of Rutherford College also adds, “COVID-19 has significantly changed our ability to engage in face to face learning onsite, however by offering online opportunities we are still able to reach out and assist our communities in these challenging and difficult times”.

“Night classes are designed to support, upskill and engage with our local communities” explains Andrea.

Linda Melrose of Onehunga High School also believes that online learning offers unique opportunities for students.

Linda explains it “allows for learning to move at the student pace, embraces differing learning styles and most importantly allows learners to learn in their own homes and environments with other members of their families”.

The sessions are being facilitated over Zoom and give students the opportunity to ask questions, participate in interactive discussions, and recreate a lot of the fun and interaction found in a typical classroom environment.

Sessions are in high demand and interested learners may wish to urgently check the schools’ websites for availability.

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