the ombudsman's latest work to engage with young people
End of term
The Financial Ombudsman Service has teamed up with End of Term [opens in pdf format] – a quarterly magazine aimed at 16-18 year-olds in their final years at school – as part of its work to engage with students and younger consumers.
End of Term works closely with a range of organisations across Scotland – including Young Scot, the youth information and citizenship agency – and is distributed via Careers Scotland offices, Duke of Edinburgh centres and Scottish secondary schools.
The ombudsman is committed to raising awareness of its service among younger people across the UK. This includes helping to build confidence in financial services by reminding younger consumers – who may be taking out a financial product for the first time – that there is a free and independent ombudsman service they can turn to should they need to complain.
frogs and snowboarders
The ombudsman unveiled the latest stage of its youth work at the Young Consumers of the Year event at the Trading Standards annual conference earlier this year. This included posters and postcards specially designed for the event featuring a frog [opens in PDF format] and a snowboarder [opens in PDF format].
This follows a campaign launched last year [first time? ... feel small? ... misunderstood? – youth-campaign posters open in PDF format] to help promote younger people's understanding of their consumer rights in relation to complaining – which led to the number of young people using the ombudsman service doubling during the year.
The ombudsman's campaign to engage with younger consumers also includes:
- participating in freshers’ open days at the University of Kent and Greenwich University
- work with teachers and youth workers including coverage in the Times Educational Supplement, Education Today and Education Executive
- features in magazines such as the What's On student guide [opens in PDF format]
- work with Connexions Direct – a national network of advisers focusing on 13-19 year olds
- ombudsman news special-feature including case studies involving younger consumers.