Outreach
Empowering schools and communities through engaging, authentic economics and financial education.
Why does this matter?
Financial capability is about more than knowing how to budget or save. Making good financial decisions requires understanding the economic forces, trade-offs and incentives that shape the choices we face.
The Business Of podcast episode “Financial literacy: Building the confidence to make better financial decisions” explores Australia’s financial capability challenge, why economic understanding matters alongside practical money skills, and how education can build the confidence to make better decisions.
STEP UP turns this research into action. Through Playconomics, students learn by making decisions, seeing the consequences and trying again. This makes economics and financial decision-making engaging, experiential and accessible - an approach shown to deliver substantial improvements to learning outcomes.
What does the research show?
STEP UP is built on more than a decade of research into how education design, incentives and game-based learning affect student engagement and academic performance. Playconomics has been tested through a series of randomised controlled trials, with six studies published in leading academic journals.
Across these studies, individual features of the Playconomics learning environment have improved university course performance by 0.16–0.43 standard deviations (SD). These effects are comparable in magnitude to reducing class sizes by 20%, providing intensive tutoring, or employing teachers 1.5-2 SD above average.
We are now taking this research into schools. Early results from STEP UP show gains in learning, confidence and decision-making, while the next phase will test these effects at scale in partnership with the NSW Department of Education - examining academic outcomes, engagement, equity and university aspirations.
STEP UP in action
Go inside the classrooms using Playconomics to see how students respond to simulated economies, real-time feedback and friendly competition. These stories share the experiences of students, teachers and participating schools, from learners tackling challenging concepts through gameplay to educators using the program across different year levels and subject areas.
Making economics click: bringing economics to life for Year 10
Aadil Pathippillil, Ijay Jogesh and Blade Richards, Year 10 Jamison High students
The Challenge: Students wanted to discover how economics could go beyond numbers to shape their world - the challenge was turning that curiosity into genuine economic understanding.
What We Did: STEP UP: Playconomics brought economics to life, turning abstract theory into an interactive world where students could learn by doing, competing with friends and seeing the consequences when things did - or didn’t - go to plan.
The Result: Students came away with a stronger understanding of concepts like opportunity cost, demand and markets, and started recognising economics in everyday life, describing it as one of the best things they had done that year.
See how Playconomics turned choices, competition and a little chaos into real economic understanding - helping students recognise economics in everyday life.
From the back of the classroom to the top of the leaderboard: building confidence and financial capability for Year 9-11
Adrian Johnson, Alexandria Park Community School teacher
The Challenge: Differences in literacy and confidence, alongside unfamiliar terminology, made commerce and economics harder for some students to access and engage with.
What We Did: STEP UP: Playconomics gave students a different way in: learning through gameplay, competition and a direct connection with UNSW beyond the classroom.
The Result: Students became more confident with applying their knowledge - and some of the quietest students found themselves leading the competition, gaining recognition and seeing themselves differently.
Opening new pathways: giving Year 10-12 a reason to discover economics
Adam MacNamara, Caroline Chisholm College teacher
The Challenge: With very few students choosing Economics, many were leaving school without the opportunity to discover how it connects to the world around them — or where it could take them.
What We Did: STEP UP: Playconomics gave students a practical, low-barrier way to experience economics firsthand — making decisions, solving problems and learning through play.
The Result: Students began connecting profits, competition and pricing to the real world — with some seeing, for the first time, how economics and business could connect to their future.
See how Playconomics turned exposure into understanding — and opened the door to new possibilities
Where we’re heading
Building a research and impact hub
STEP UP is growing into a broader platform bringing researchers, educators, government, industry and schools together to study how education shapes economic and financial literacy, university participation and social mobility - and to put that research into practice.
Expanding our outreach
We’re scaling STEP UP globally, with a focus on system-level impact - widening Playconomics access and testing its impact with the NSW Department of Education, while expanding the Play model into new areas, starting with PlayEnergy and real-world energy trade-offs.
Shaping policy
We’re driving economic and financial literacy up the policy agenda — working with government, educators, industry and communities to turn rigorous research into evidence-based policy, shape curriculum and system-level reform, and advocate for stronger economic and financial education in schools and across the life course.
Be part of STEP UP
For schools and teachers: Bring STEP UP to your students
Bring free, university-level economics and financial literacy learning to your Year 9–12 students. STEP UP provides the online program, all teaching materials and full ongoing support, making it simple to introduce Playconomics in the classroom or as self-paced learning.
For partners and supporters: Join us in STEP UP
Help STEP UP reach more schools, develop new game-based learning programs and evaluate what makes the greatest difference for students. Your contribution supports free access, program delivery and continued research.
Get involved with STEP UP
Support our outreach work
Help STEP UP reach more students and schools, improve economic and financial literacy and create lasting opportunities for communities experiencing disadvantage. Philanthropic support allows us to expand our programs, test what works and turn research into meaningful outcomes for young people.
Contribute to our research
Contribute to an interdisciplinary research agenda combining theory, empirical analysis and randomised controlled trials. We invite researchers to reach out and work with our network across UNSW and the wider community to design, test and share new approaches to education.