Financial markets have become increasingly complex and, in consequence, individuals everywhere need to improve their understanding of financial products and services. In addition, individuals today have greater responsibility for their financial well-being. A wide process of financial education is required in order to configure a critical and informed citizenship able to understand and make fundamental decisions on aspects related not only to the financial system, its functioning and products but also to all aspects integrated on a solid financial training. However, financial education is especially low among certain demographic groups, including young adults at risk. Some researches show that most young adults at risk make financial decisions and deal with complex financial products despite lacking this basic financial and quantitative knowledge. Moreover, the inclusion of the voices of the young adults is not taken into account when elaborating any curricula on financial education although it is essential to meet the real necessities and demands on financial education and for them to become more active, independent and enterprising. The project has as the main aim the establishment of a learning curriculum on financial education based on the implication of young adults at risk themselves in order to meet their real needs on financial literacy. Objectives: - Develop a participatory process that allows the implication of young adults at risk. To facilitate the participatory process, national working teams of young adults will be created in organizations which are directly working with them. - Carry out a comparative study on financial education programmes in the partnership countries. - Collect the participatory process followed in the organizations in a methodology that could be afterwards implemented in other organizations working with young adults. - Organize transnational and national seminars to disseminate the methodology and curriculum among young adults, organizations directly working with young adults at risk and public administration. - Carry out meetings with young organizations, organizations directly working with young adults at risk and public administration in order to guarantee the sustainability of the curriculum and the methodology abroad. The project is addressed to three different target groups: - Young adults between 18 and 34 without basic compulsory education who are at risk of social exclusion due to their difficulties to be included on the labour market. - Organizations directly working with young adults at risk: youth organizations, social organizations for social and labour inclusion, financial organizations with training programmes on financial literacy and other stakeholders/adult education providers. - Public administration. The methodology used in this project will be the critical communicative methodology. It was recognized as the best methodology when promoting educational participation of disadvantage groups (INCLUD-ED- CREA 2006-2011). The three main project’s outputs will be: - The Comparative study on financial education programmes in the partnership countries. It will collect recommendations for the realization of programs and curriculums focused on financial literacy conducted by international institutions, and systematize existing financial education programs. - The Methodology: Promoting participative processes with young adults on the elaboration of educational curriculums. It has as main objective the systematization of the participatory process followed by partner organizations. - The Curriculum on financial education addressed to young adults, which will be the result of the participatory process carried out at the national level, in each of the participating institutions. Dissemination will include activities related to the organization of two multiplier events with the main objective of disseminating the Methodology and the Curriculum created. In order to assure the sustainability of the project, meetings with young organizations, and public administration will be organized in each country and a specific space will be created and disseminated on the web page of the project to include new contributions from young adults to the curriculum. The methodology will improve the inclusion of young adults’ voices in the organizations, increasing their opportunities for professional development, promote lifelong learning and a more active participation in society. Finally, the project will offer a concrete and valid curriculum to be implemented in national educative systems in order to widen the access of at risk collectives to the financial education.
Financial markets have become increasingly complex and, therefore, a comprehensive financial education process is needed to make informed decisions about all aspects that involve personal finances. However, financial education is especially low in young adults at social risk. Research shows that this group must make economic decisions and deal with financial products without having the basic knowledge. At the same time, the inclusion of the voices of young adults is not considered in the elaboration of curricula on financial education, which is essential to give a real answer to their needs and that would allow them to be more active, independent and entrepreneurs. From this context arises the need to develop the EDUFIN project. The main objective of the EDUFIN project was the development of a financial education curriculum that can be adapted to the needs of institutions that work with young adults at-risk. The principal project activities were: - Develop a Comparative Study on financial education programs in the partnership countries. - Elaboration of the Synthesis Report of the comparative study addressed to young adults. - Develop a participatory process involving young adults at risk. - Systematize the results of the participatory process in a Methodology that can be implemented in other organizations that work with young adults to create educational curricula. - Develop a Financial Literacy Curriculum that, based on the needs and expectations of at-risk youth, identifies curricular areas and topics that young people need and want to learn. - Organize a transnational seminar and national seminars to disseminate the results of the project: O2 Methodology and O3 Curriculum. The EDU-FIN consortium consists of seven organizations with extensive knowledge and experience in the field of lifelong learning. The partners have previously worked together on European projects, establishing a common way of work, which supported the consistency of the project and guaranteed the achievement of the proposed objectives. The consortium includes geographically well distributed and with diverse typology organizations: Ágora Association (Spain), Amalipe Center (Bulgaria) are community base organizations. Centro Studi Vila Montesca (Italy), University of Warwick (UK), and Danube University (Austria) are institutions of higher education with a long tradition working in continuing education. European Association for the Education of Adults EAEA (Belgium), and FACEPA (Spain) are federations of adult education associations with European dimension Collect, analyse and discuss information on the state of financial education both at European and participating countries level permitted to create the Comparative Study and the Synthesis Report. Subsequently, national events were held to involve young people in the different national teams. These work teams formed in Austria, Bulgaria, Spain and Italy held seven sessions within the framework of the participatory process were the participants, through an egalitarian dialogue, were able to reflect and discuss the contents of financial literacy that they need for everyday life and to improve their expectations for the future. With their contributions it was possible to develop the Methodology on how to make participatory processes and also to create the Financial Literacy Curriculum. Throughout the project, internal and external evaluations were conducted to ensure the quality of the outputs. The Comparative Study is available in English and Spanish. The Synthesis Report, Methodology, and Curriculum are available to be downloaded on all partner’s languages. The impact of the project includes the multiplier event held during the annual EAEA meeting in Brussels, attended by more than 70 representatives of adult education institutions. At the same time, at the local level, entities belonging to Facepa have decided in Assembly to apply this curriculum in all its entities. Partners that work directly with participants are creating networks for developing the curriculum in their organizations and within their local. Being part of a project at European level has had an impact on a personal level of more than 80 young people who participated on the process by opening the door to a topic that they felt excluded. From the voices of the participants we can highlight the intention of the young Roma participants of Amalipe Center to look for entrepreneurship courses to create their own sources of income, as well as the general interest of participants to improve their personal finances to live more independently. In the long term, the EDUFIN project consortium hopes that this curriculum will be applied across Europe and to continue to add the ideas and needs of the young adults at risk, and offering support to other institutions that decide to implement participatory process to create their educational curriculums.