Thousands of middle and high school students across the Triad will have access to hands-on financial education next year.

Junior Achievement of the Triad is launching “Finance Park Mobile.”

The nonprofit plans to travel to 56 schools across Alamance, Forsyth, Guilford, Randolph and Rockingham counties next year.

Grace Thompson, the organization’s president and CEO, says students will have classroom lessons first. Then, they’ll practice what they learn in an immersive city simulation with a marketplace, an assigned income and even some post-secondary debt.

“So they're going to be building a budget; they're going to be buying a house, buying a car. They're going to be managing their dependents, and they're going to learn a lot about how life works," Thompson said. "And while they're doing this, they're also interacting with employers in our region that are their future employers.”

Truliant Federal Credit Union and Toyota North Carolina announced their support of the initiative at a press conference this week. Together, they invested $200,000 in the program.