The aim of this project is to develop evidence-based didactical material for financial literacy education for tertiary and secondary education levels and exchange best-practices. “Financial education has always been important for consumers in helping them budget and manage their income, save and invest efficiently, and avoid becoming victims of fraud. As financial markets become increasingly sophisticated and as households assume more of the responsibility and risk for financial decisions, financial education is increasingly necessary for individuals, not only to ensure their own financial well-being but also to ensure the smooth functioning of financial markets and the economy” (OECD, 2005, p. 177). There is need for increased financial literacy education in view of widespread financial illiteracy and the benefits for individual well-being and society at large that are associated with high levels of financial literacy education. Although the OECD policy recommendation to introduce financial literacy education at school is well accepted, there is no consensus on the optimal way to implement financial literacy education at school. By developing innovative materials on financial literacy education, and testing these materials in tertiary and secondary schools, we will provide evidence based tools to improve financial literacy education. In addition, based on the OECD recommendation country specific strategies were developed to increase the level on financial literacy education across Europe and worldwide. Today, there is, however, no exchange of best practices across countries or exchange of didactical materials. We aim to change this by creating an open-source website and actively exchanging practices and didactical materials. The project involves 14 different partners from five European countries – Belgium, Estonia, Italy, Slovakia and the Netherlands. Taking a cross-sectoral approach, cooperation between these countries is proposed for the project, with universities, secondary schools and intermediary organisations dealing with financial literacy promotion participating from each country respectively. The project addresses students and lecturers at teaching colleges and universities, and teachers and students at secondary education. Moreover, we actively foresee networking opportunities between the organisations outside the educational institutions. That way the project will guarantee a high impact at different levels. Moreover, the consortium will work (in two different domains) on key competences for lifelong learning and will contribute to the realisation of the Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006. The consortium will work on six different outputs and will organise two multiplier events. Output 1: Financial Literacy education 2018: descriptive and comparative analysis A comprehensive assessment and a comparative study is to be published, including the state-of-the-art related to financial literacy in the participating countries (for example: financial literacy in the training of teachers, in curricula and teaching resources for secondary schools) and complementing non-school initiatives in other educational institutions. Output 2: Curricular module 'Financial Literacy Education' The project partners will develop a curriculum (module) on ‘Financial Literacy Education’. The aim of the module is to increase the level of financial literacy and help university students to make successful financial decisions. The curriculum will cover aspects on making payments, loans, savings, and insurance. Output 3: Testing and transfer of the module 'Financial Literacy Education' in higher education The material, developed in output 2, will be tested and evaluated. The implementation and evaluation is planned to take place in all participating tertiary education institutions in the second year of the project. Output 4: Didactical material on 'Financial Literacy Education' for secondary schools The consortium will develop didactical material for secondary schools. We will find out which material in the participating countries already exist (output 1). Based on the results we will develop new didactical material, which can be adopted to specific needs within a country. Output 5: Testing and transfer of the didactical material in secondary schools The material, developed in output 4, will be tested and evaluated in an experimental way. The implementation and evaluation is planned to take place in all participating secondary schools in the third year of the project. Output 6: Knowledge-Portal During the project a Knowledge-Portal will be created. All developed content will be integrated in this portal. In addition, the project partners will link the existing materials to this portal, which will also be open to non-participating partners. An e-learning-portal, the project website, a news-portal etc. will be part of the Knowledge-Portal.
The aim of this project was to develop evidence-based didactical material for financial literacy education for tertiary and secondary education levels and exchange best-practices. There was and remains a need for increased financial literacy education in view of widespread financial illiteracy and the benefits for individual well-being and society at large that are associated with high levels of financial literacy education. Although the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) policy recommendation to introduce financial literacy education at school is well accepted, there is still no consensus on the optimal way to implement financial literacy education at school. By developing innovative materials on financial literacy education, and testing these materials in tertiary and secondary schools, we provided evidence based tools to improve financial literacy education. In addition, based on the OECD recommendation country specific strategies were developed to increase the level on financial literacy education across Europe and worldwide. However, there was no exchange of best practices across countries or exchange of didactical materials. We aimed to change this by creating an open-source website and actively exchanging practices and didactical materials. The project involved 14 different partners from five European countries – Belgium, Estonia, Italy, Slovakia and the Netherlands. Taking a cross-sectoral approach, cooperation between these countries was proposed for the project, with universities, secondary schools and intermediary organisations dealing with financial literacy promotion participating from each country respectively. The project addressed students and lecturers at teaching colleges and universities, and teachers and students at secondary education. Moreover, we actively have foreseen networking opportunities between the organisations outside the educational institutions. That way the project guaranteed a high impact at different levels. Moreover, the consortium worked (in two different domains) on key competences for lifelong learning and contributed to the realisation of the Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006. The consortium worked on six different intellectual outputs and organised three multiplier events. 1. Financial Literacy education 2018: descriptive and comparative analysis A comprehensive assessment and a comparative study was published, including the state-of-the-art related to financial literacy in the participating countries (for example: financial literacy in the training of teachers, in curricula and teaching resources for secondary schools) and complementing non-school initiatives in other educational institutions. 2. Curricular module 'Financial Literacy Education' The project partners developed a curriculum (module) on ‘Financial Literacy Education’. The aim of the module is to increase the level of financial literacy and help university students to make successful financial decisions. The curriculum covers aspects on making payments, loans, savings, and insurance. 3. Testing and transfer of the module 'Financial Literacy Education' in higher education The material, developed in output 2, was tested and evaluated. The implementation and evaluation took place in all participating tertiary education institutions in the second year of the project. 4. Didactical material on 'Financial Literacy Education' for secondary schools The consortium developed didactical material for secondary schools. We found out which material in the participating countries already exist (output 1). Based on the results we developed new didactical material, which can be adopted to specific needs within a country. 5. Testing and transfer of the didactical material in secondary schools The material, developed in output 4, was tested and evaluated in an experimental way. The implementation and evaluation took place in all participating secondary schools in the third year of the project. 6. Knowledge-Portal During the project a Knowledge-Portal was created. All developed content is integrated in this portal. In addition, the project partners linked the existing materials to this portal, which is also open to non-participating partners. An e-learning-portal, the project website, a news-portal etc. are part of the Knowledge-Portal.