Consumer Education

The past decades have seen significant changes in markets and services. These changes increase the need for consumer education and make necessary a revision of its themes and focal areas. Money no longer has to take the form of actual coins and notes, but can be spent from virtual wallets. The number of products and public and commercial services on offer has multiplied enormously, while increased globalisation has made it even more difficult to obtain a general overview of the economy. Marketing has changed and is increasingly associated with entertainment and social interaction, generating an ever-growing flow of information and advertising.

It is said that young people can better cope with media environments and devices and have more interest in technology in comparison with their parents, but they lack life experience and are quite possibly less aware of risks. Unlike their parents and teachers, young people are brought up with digital media and digital domestic technology as an extension of their everyday lives. They are thus more accustomed to and familiar with digital media and devices than are their parents and teachers. However, only adults have the necessary life experience that makes them competent to make responsible choices.

To be able to participate in society and utilise digital and real-time media requires competence in the use of the corresponding tools. The general media environment has changed radically from a past that was characterised by controlled channels of media content. People today use these media to participate in markets, publish content and support and facilitate communication and interaction with others. Most children learn to use technology and online media with their family and peers. Adequate technological skills have become an essential part of young peoples’ expertise and abilities.

Today, nearly all households have a computer and an Internet connection and most devices employ digital technology. Online technologies are penetrating all areas of life. Consumers need to be able to evaluate information and requirements as these apply to products and services from the perspective of sustainable development and to form opinions on these. We are living in an era of change as far as knowledge and competences are concerned.

The level of consumer skills and competences varies and can be determined by gender, age and social background. For instance, information and communication technology is a key element of consumer skills. It is essential to find teaching methods and tools that will enable us to minimise the gaps between generations and consumer skills. Recent research indicates that girls in our countries are catching up with boys with regard to ICT skills.
 

Consumer Education Needed at Ever Younger Ages

Children are dealing with consumption and using money at an increasingly young age. There are more products and services on offer and children spend their free time in an environment that is increasingly consumption-orientated. Research shows that children have a significant impact on families' consumption decisions. Due to changes in society, media and markets, consumer education is now required in early years, as children are assuming the role of consumers at increasingly younger ages. Habits learned in childhood influence consumption behaviour later in life. Being a consumer involves the process of being socialised into the role of a consumer. Children assume the role of consumers during their early childhood – a fact that marketers exploit to a significant extent. It has been shown that:

• Children under the age of two years recognise brands and are able to request the purchasing of goods.
• Children under the age of four years are able to make purchases with help.
• Eight-year-olds are able to make autonomous purchase decisions.
• Nine-year-olds begin to take on the role of consumers.
• Ten-year-olds will have assimilated at least half of the key consumer attitudes and models.

It was deemed sufficient in the past to provide consumer education towards the end of basic education, with the goal of providing information and fostering skills and attitudes required in adulthood. In more recent years, the focus has shifted to lifestyles, values and reflection on one's own choices. This approach to consumer education does not need to be reformed, but the changes in society and markets make it necessary for ever younger children to have the skills to cope with their role as consumers in the marketplace. As a result, education needs to begin at an earlier age, while continuing into adulthood, and it needs to cover a greater variety of content.
 

New Challenges – New Responses

The main objective of consumer education has, thus far, been to teach pupils at school to act as rational, aware and moral citizens under the aegis of state and society. Consumer education today should provide citizens with the tools and skills to have an influence. It should be re-evaluated in the light of contemporary challenges.

The new challenges and the relevant responses of consumer education are summarised in the table below. The key elements of foresight, knowledge, practical skills, ethics and emotional skills are emphasised as the main responses required within consumer education programmes.

Table 1 shows the spectrum of educational challenges. This document takes the above challenges in consumer education into consideration by proposing the introduction of two cross-curricular themes - “Sustainable consumption” and “Media and technology literacy”.

Sustainable consumption requires a lifestyle where actions are guided by positive foresight and responsibility. In the previous approach to consumer education, environment and ethics were included as separate categories. Ethical and environmental values are not treated as separate entities in this document. One of the key aspects of the new approach is to ensure that the dimensions of sustainable consumption are taken into consideration in every aspect of consumer education – whether the focus is on the economy, private finances, advertising and media or the home environment. All consumer education is seen as encompassing the four pillars of sustainable development as defined by the Brundtland Commission.

• Ecological sustainability – consumption should harmonise with natural processes, diversity and the principles of preserving and maintaining natural resources. The greatest challenges in ecological sustainability are how to slow down climate change, protect biodiversity and use natural resources in a sustainable manner.
• Economic sustainability requires that development is economically efficient and just.
• Social sustainability means improving people's ability to manage their lives and strengthening social identity. Consumption must not be in conflict with these aims. Challenges in this area include population growth, poverty, availability of food and health care, equality between sexes, the provision of education and managing the social effects of the media.
• Cultural sustainability requires consumption to be in harmony with culture and values. Challenges in this area include the convergence of culture, media and commercialism as well as the commercialisation of the social media.

Educational programmes have long had the objective of promoting the concepts of commitment to sustainable lifestyles, the enhancement of skills and competences relating to sustainable development and the promotion of such awareness as a part of lifelong learning. In future, the aspect of consumption as dealt with in educational programmes should be increasingly clearly tied to the concept of sustainable development in a way that spans all four areas of sustainability, not just the ecological area.

Media literacy skills need to be developed within our contemporary networked society, where the use of digital media are ingrained in everyday interactions and functions and where media forms are increasingly converging. Thus, media literacy skills now unite traditional literacy skills (such as standard and audiovisual literacy) with the ability to read, write, critically assess and navigate digital media forms and content.

The media and technological literacy of a consumer allows the comprehensive understanding, interpretation and definition of the technological environment in accordance with that individual’s findings, experiences, values, attitudes and knowledge. It provides for critical understanding and responsible participation in the interplay of the individual’s own community, media, societal and historical environment. Understanding of the technical environment and its processes is fundamental for sustainable interaction among human beings and socioeconomic communities. In this document, we use the term “technical environment” to refer to all systems, including home-based and public services, which use digital technology.

Media and technological competence should be taught within education as a fundamental skill, ranking alongside the standard three ‘R’s and other basic requirements. Media and digital competence should also be integrated in all subject areas as functional tools which can be used to capture new insights, especially when this competence is not organised as a separate subject.

The inclusion of media and technological competence is new from the point of view of consumer education. Certain aspects of media competence and ICT competence are included in current curricula, but this is not extensive enough when it comes to consumer education. In common with other areas of knowledge, there is the need to learn the fundamental aspects of consumer technologies rather than just learning how to use different media and ICT tools in association with particular applications. The most fundamental aspect here is acquiring the ability to quickly adopt new technologies and understand the actual benefits offered by them, as well as the ability to select those technologies which best correspond to one's own needs. Basic knowledge of programming, navigation and the aspects of security, safety and privacy is required as well as the ability to communicate with the equipment and understand how data is stored in different formats for different purposes. In order to cope as a consumer, it is necessary to build up a general understanding of aspects such as user interfaces, and make this information transferable and sustainable. Many countries have already introduced ICT/informatics as a separate subject or cross curricular subject, thus providing enhanced understanding of the subject matter. ICT should not be merely taught as an isolated subject – learners also need to be provided with a general understanding of the background and with the ability to critically sift information, and need to be shown how to use these skills to engage in social interaction and produce content of their own.