MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) — Registration for the 20th annual Finance University began on Sunday. The seminar is hosted by WVU to help educators bring financial literacy to the classroom.

The seminar will run from July 24 to 28 and is designed to teach educators how they can better instruct middle and high school students to responsibly earn, spend, save, invest and protect their money.

Events featured at the program will include talks from WVU students and faculty, seminars about personal finance and emerging technology, and a tour of WVU’s newest downtown campus addition, Reynolds Hall. A full agenda for the seminar can be found here.

Amy Pridemore, who is the director of the Center for Financial Literacy and Education, says it is crucial for any educator to understand this topic, especially since it is an area that is not taught very much in middle and high school.

“The teachers, we want them to understand these personal finance topics because if they don’t feel confident knowing those topics themselves, they’re not going to feel confident teaching someone else. Especially for investing you know, that’s a topic that everybody is really interested in but it’s a really scary topic to teach to somebody else if you don’t understand it yourself,” Pridemore said.

Pridemore also lamented the fact that finance is a topic often steered away from when it’s a skill people should use every day.

“I think that it goes back years prior to now, you know? It’s just a taboo topic. People don’t talk about it at the dinner table, people don’t talk about it at home, so it’s just not really been something that’s been addressed,” Pridemore said.

Teachers will attend talks by representatives from Truist Financial (previously BB&T), PRA Group and WVU Chambers College.

The seminar also satisfies the West Virginia Department of Education’s requirements to attain the Personal Finance Education Specialist advanced credential (24.4.9).

The event is held each year and usually falls on the third weekend of July. If you want to learn more about Finance University, you can visit its webpage here.