FutureForce identified the Finance cluster as a priority as the result of information obtained from the careerconnections.org website regarding careers of interest. Finance ranked among the top three career choices among the students who took the tests.

The Finance Cluster consists of the following five pathways: Accounting, Banking Services, Corporate Finance, Securities and Investments, and Insurance.

Accounting encompasses careers that record, classify, summarize, analyze, and communicate a business's financial information/business transactions for use in management decision-making. Accounting includes such activities as bookkeeping, systems design, analysis and interpretation of accounting information.

Banking Services is primarily concerned with accepting deposits, lending funds, and extending credit. Banking services include cash management, short-term investments, mortgages and other loans, credit cards, and bill payment. Banking services are delivered via a number of different institutions, from commercial banks (the largest group) and other traditional means (savings and loans associations, credit unions, and local banks) to newer ventures through brokerage houses, and the Internet.

Business Finance provides policy management and strategy for (and the implementation of) capital structure, budgeting, and acquisition and investment, financial modeling and planning, funding, dividends and taxation.

Securities and Investments consists of brokerage firms, investment banks and stock exchanges, all of which support the flow of funds from investors to companies and institutions. Related services include financial planning, asset management, hedge fund management, and custody services.

Insurance is an industry that exists to protect individuals and businesses from financial losses, delivers "products" that transfer risk from an individual or business to an insurance company.

The FutureForce Finance Committee was charged with the task of developing a standardized finance course that could be used across the state of Nebraska in a way that facilitates articulation.

FutureForce Finance and partners met on June 22, 2007 and successfully developed three dual credit classes.

- College Personal Financial Management     view   download
- College Introduction to Business                  view   download
- College Principles of Accounting                  view   download