Accounting Clubs in Schools

What is Accounting Clubs in Schools?

Accounting Clubs in Schools is a ten-week programme that teaches financial education to 16–18 year olds. Run by Accounting Cafe with trained teachers and volunteers, it uses the Colour Accounting Learning System under licence.

The programme teaches financial literacy through accounting. Students learn how financial information works — what we call “accounting literacy”. This foundation helps them understand practical topics like payslips, student loans, credit cards, mortgages, and investments. Students who grasp these accounting fundamentals can approach new financial concepts with greater confidence.

About thirty schools across the UK now run Accounting Clubs. Teachers and students have responded enthusiastically.

Accounting Club Educators deliver the programme. They might be teachers in the school, accounting academics from a nearby university, or other knowledgeable people from the community.

What participants can expect from Accounting Club

Accounting Club runs as a weekly after-school or enrichment activity over one term. Ten sessions of roughly 90 minutes each. We provide resources, lesson plans, instructor videos, and activities for every meeting.

You can adapt the delivery pattern if needed, though this may require some tailoring.

Meetings 1–3: Fundamentals of accounting

The first three meetings introduce fundamental accounting concepts through activities and conversation. Using stories and practical tasks, participants learn about duality and the five financial statement elements.

Meetings 4–6: Business accounting

Participants get hands-on with Colour Accounting, an interactive learning activity. Each student receives their own Colour Accounting pack to keep. They’ll experience “doing” accounting, then learn to read and analyse financial statements meaningfully.

Meetings 7–10: Personal finance

The final meetings apply accounting concepts to personal finance: wealth, savings, budgeting, and investing. The content works regardless of students’ financial backgrounds.

The Colour Accounting Learning System

Colour Accounting sits at the heart of the programme. The Colour Accounting Learning System is owned by Wealthvox, which licenses it to Accounting Cafe. ACEs learn to use these tools in a classroom as part of their training.

You’ll receive a Colour Accounting pack when you register for training. To run the programme, schools order packs directly from Wealthvox. We explain how during accreditation.

Who can be an Accounting Club Educator?

Some technical knowledge is an advantage at the level of Business at BTEC or A Level. Advanced accounting knowledge is not required.

We particularly encourage school teachers and university lecturers.

Others who are successfully delivering Accounting Clubs in Schools include retired teachers, commercial trainers and people with some business experience and financial acumen.

The benefits of becoming an Accounting Club Educator

Being an ACE lets you use your experience and skills to make a real difference to young people and your local community.

You’ll develop your teaching practice by working in new contexts with different resources and materials.

You’ll deepen your understanding of how accounting, financial literacy, personal finance, and well-being connect.

For university staff: Accounting Clubs in Schools counts towards scholarship, outreach, and impact. Use it as evidence for promotion, teaching qualifications, external accreditations, and funding applications.

For school teachers: It develops your practice and provides continuing professional development evidence.

The responsibilities of an Accounting Club Educator

ACEs usually come from within a school or college, or they approach a school. Most use personal contacts, parent networks, and governing body links. University-based ACEs coordinate through their university outreach teams.

Many schools host showcase events where students choose enrichment programmes. ACEs can attend and present Accounting Club’s benefits. We provide communication materials for these recruitment events.

ACEs deliver the programme in weekly 90-minute workshops over 10 weeks within a single term. This means committing to roughly two hours per week at a school. You’ll need some flexibility for career days, external trips, and half-term breaks.

ACEs must follow the school’s policies at all times. Schools usually provide these on request or publish them on their websites

Finding the time

You might not have the capacity for this in your spare time. That’s understandable.

School teachers can often negotiate this as part of their normal duties. University staff can similarly ask line managers for community or school outreach hours.

If your organisation can’t allocate contracted hours, perhaps suggest the benefits of Employer-supported volunteering (ESV).

Cost of training and accreditation — £145

The training fee is £245. This includes one “Colour Accounting” pack, online training, and supporting materials. Fees are non-refundable.

Training consists of five hours across four 75-minute online sessions. We’ll post the Colour Accounting pack beforehand, and additional resources are on the Accounting Cafe website.

University staff may recover costs from departmental staff development, community outreach, or marketing budgets.

School teachers may access enrichment and staff development budgets.

Cost of programme delivery — approximately £25 per pupil

Each participant requires a “Colour Accounting” pack. The cost of each pack is £25 plus postage, packing and VAT. Most schools can reclaim the VAT.

If budgets are tight, sharing packs between two is an option.

Schools order packs directly from Wealthvox. These are only supplied to schools associated with an accredited trainer.

Dates for training

You must book your place at least 10 days before the first training session so we can send you learning materials for the course.

Dates for 2026 will be published shortly
Evenings from 5.45pm to 7.15pm

Day 1 —
Day 2 —
Day 3 —
Day 4 —

You will be accredited only after completing each day of training.