Co‐operation among groups in developing and delivering programmes to consumers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of co‐operation among consumer education providers, in developing and delivering education programmes for consumers. Four groups of consumer education providers were identified for this study: business representatives, consumer advocates, government agencies and secondary school educators. Members of each group were presented with a series of 42 objectives which had been grouped into eight categories. They were asked to identify the importance of each objective and providers were compared according to their responses. Similarities and differences among consumer education providers were identified and statistical tests applied. Three objectives identified as most important by participants were: (i) developing guidelines for wise use of credit; (ii) identifying the rights and responsibilities of the consumer in our society; and (iii) establishing the essential factors in the developing of a budget. The median test identified significant differences (P < 0.05) between consumer education suppliers in the importance they assigned to consumer education objectives in three categories. Spearman rank‐difference correlation test identified objectives within seven categories of objectives for which consumer educators expressed similar importance. These findings indicate sufficient agreement among consumer educators' importance ranking of objectives to indicate support for co‐operative educational programmes.