The SFinLit (Financial Sustainable Literacy) consortium, composed of 8 European partners leaded by UNED (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, from Spain), had the collective goal to support and reinforce the development of key competences in Financial Sustainability for individuals from early childhood and throughout life. The European Banking & Financial Services Training Association (EBTN) as the united voice of providers of vocational education and training in the financial industry and an international network of banking institutes has an intrinsic interest in improving financial literacy in Europe. Erasmus+ projects on such topics as Sustainable Financial Literacy (SFinLit) are an ideal opportunity to provide valuable contributions towards this aim. Due to our well-established Financial Literacy Committee, we are also able to contribute the necessary relevant experience to the project. EBTN – as an association of professional training providers for the financial services sector, and therefore by its nature competent to contribute in efforts to upgrade the financial literacy of citizens through financial education – is among the most well established European and international bodies involved in this field. EBTN is one of the Founders of the European Platform for Financial Education, together with the European Banking Federation and other organizations. EBTN is an Affiliated Member of the OECD International Network on Financial Education and supporter of the European Money Week. We sent this proposal as we realized that our students lack basic knowledge and skills on financial literacy and entrepreneurship together with other European partners from the banking industry, like effebi in Italy or IEF in Spain, multimedia and academy developers like CTI/MTU, LAUREA and UNED, or users and VET providers like PDETh in Greece or Agora in Netherlands. Among young people there is a substantial knowledge deficit in these matters. We address the objective of developing an understanding of what socially responsible finance is. We developed content adapted to the needs of the target group (young students and young adults) and, in addition, made available online resources relating to Financial Literacy and Learn to Learn Competences in School Education. Financial Literacy is an important component of effective decision-making by a household. Improvements in Financial Literacy can have a profound impact on people and their ability to provide for their future. Financial literacy is therefore also about extending opportunities for the bottom of the social pyramid, where financial literacy is one of the core factors (next to improved financial access, adequate consumer protection, and regulatory framework) associated with improved financial resilience. Further social needs to be considered, in the context of sustainable Financial Literacy, are lifelong learning and sustainability in education. The social needs we have in account in our project are as follows: a. Our students get acquainted with terms such as green economy, circular economy, sustainable development, sustainability, sustainable finance, sustainable entrepreneurship, corporate responsibility and climate change. b. What the connection and relevance is among all these. c. To learn about all these through personal involvement and in an experiential and empirical way. The website of the project is available at http://www.ieectqai.uned.es/sfinlit-project/ and the course is available at https://www.sfinlit-project.eu/. Education and training in an adaptive learning environment are the main objectives of the project. Students choose topics of interest, and the learning platform presents them with relevant learning plans related to Sustainable Financial Education training. These innovative and interactive online courses are fully asynchronous and self-paced - but can also be integrated into classroom teaching in a variety of ways. Given the importance of sustainable financial literacy for our association described above and the social needs associated with it, our principal goal is to contribute to improving such literacy. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring high quality sustainable financial education, dissemination of best practices in the field and sharing of current trends on the topic. SFinLit project supports improvements to financial literacy in Europe and thereby add towards more elaborate decision-making capabilities of its citizens regarding financial matters. These may include saving, investment, retirement, pensions, insurance, credit, or avoidance of over indebtedness, including: a. Skills development, b. Improvement of the students’ cognitive level, c. Actions and activities relevant to the terms mentioned above, d. Deal with the relevant gaps on a formal learning/education level. Following a development process which involved extensive research, curriculum compilation and selection of the best content from a variety of sectors including finance, digital literacy and educational frameworks across multiple levels, a number of high-quality online and freely-available education courses were created. In addition to the online training resources and the associated recommendation engine, the project has also developed a set of guidelines designed to offer recommendations and guidance for teachers on how they can effectively integrate the developed SFinLit outputs into their teaching process. The most relevant activities of the project include the transnational meetings in Madrid, Rome, Larissa and Barcelona as well as the educational event in Cork or the dissemination events in Brussels and Barcelona. A further milestone was the creation of the website in 8 different European Languages and the course website in English. Other relevant activities include the testing of the SFinLit courses, online dissemination activities such as on LinkedIn and the participation in WEEF/GEDC 2021 or Edulearn21. a. Interdisciplinary research to investigate, analyze and ascertain that there are certain educational needs to be covered. b. Formation of focus groups with finance teachers and educators of relevant specialization to record the financial education status in Greece. c. The writing of a guidebook (Pedagogical Guide) regarding sustainable economy and climate change. d. Implementation of the guidebook in practice and conclusion drawing. The result of all this work has been a project of the highest quality. An extensive range of dissemination activities have been undertaken and these activities continue. The project has been very successful in building strong working relationships and meaningful collaborations between the international partners and as a consequence synergies and alliances have been created for future projects related to financial education. Creation of educational material on Sustainable Financial Literacy for secondary school children, VET students and teachers, as well as the general public. The project is expected to offer opportunities for the exchange of ideas and good practices with peers from across Europe through the training events, piloting elements, training sessions, dissemination activities and the online platform. This project is expected to be particularly beneficial for the target group, as well as for young student, teachers, lifelong learning actors and banking members, and an inspiration to expand their activities in sustainable financial literacy. It is also a chance for them to get involved in sustainable financial literacy activities in a guided and smooth way. Generally shaping sustainable financial literate people, regardless of their age, in the long run will safeguard the stability of the financial system itself. a. Realization of the deficiencies and gaps in the educational system concerning financial literacy. b. Getting acquainted with new terms concerning finance. c. Experiential, empirical and playful education. d. Cover the deficiencies and gaps of the school books as far as financial awareness and terminology is concerned.
Education and training in an adaptive learning environment are the main objectives of the project. Students choose topics of interest, and the learning platform presents them with relevant learning plans related to Sustainable Financial Education training. These innovative and interactive online courses are fully asynchronous and self-paced - but can also be integrated into classroom teaching in a variety of ways. Given the importance of sustainable financial literacy for our association described above and the social needs associated with it, our principal goal is to contribute to improving such literacy. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring high quality sustainable financial education, dissemination of best practices in the field and sharing of current trends on the topic. SFinLit project support improvements to financial literacy in Europe and thereby add towards more elaborate decision-making capabilities of its citizens regarding financial matters. These may include saving, investment, retirement, pensions, insurance, credit, or avoidance of over indebtedness, including: a. Skills development, b. Improvement of the students’ cognitive level, c. Actions and activities relevant to the terms mentioned above, d. Deal with the relevant gaps on a formal learning/education level.
The SFinLit (Financial Sustainable Literacy) consortium, composed of 8 European partners leaded by UNED (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, from Spain), had the collective goal to support and reinforce the development of key competences in Financial Sustainability for individuals from early childhood and throughout life. The European Banking & Financial Services Training Association (EBTN) as the united voice of providers of vocational education and training in the financial industry and an international network of banking institutes has an intrinsic interest in improving financial literacy in Europe. Erasmus+ projects on such topics as Sustainable Financial Literacy (SFinLit) are an ideal opportunity to provide valuable contributions towards this aim. Due to our well-established Financial Literacy Committee, we are also able to contribute the necessary relevant experience to the project. EBTN – as an association of professional training providers for the financial services sector, and therefore by its nature competent to contribute in efforts to upgrade the financial literacy of citizens through financial education – is among the most well established European and international bodies involved in this field. EBTN is one of the Founders of the European Platform for Financial Education, together with European Banking Federation and other organizations. EBTN is an Affiliated Member of the OECD International Network on Financial Education and supporter of the European Money Week. We sent this proposal as we realized that our students lack basic knowledge and skills on financial literacy and entrepreneurship together with other European partners from the banking industry, like effebi in Italy or IEF in Spain, multimedia and academy developers like CTI/MTU, LAUREA and UNED, or users and VET providers like PDETh in Greece or Agora in Netherlands. Among young people there is a substantial knowledge deficit in these matters. We address the objective of developing an understanding of what socially responsible finance is. We developed content adapted to the needs of the target group (young students and young adults) and, in addition, made available online resources relating to Financial Literacy and Learn to Learn Competences in School Education. Financial Literacy is an important component of effective decision-making by a household. Improvements in Financial Literacy can have a profound impact on people and their ability to provide for their future. Financial literacy is therefore also about extending opportunities for the bottom of the social pyramid, where financial literacy is one of the core factors (next to improved financial access, adequate consumer protection, and regulatory framework) associated with improved financial resilience. Further social needs to be considered, in the context of sustainable Financial Literacy, are lifelong learning and sustainability in education. The social needs we have in account in our project are as follows: a. Our students to get acquainted with terms such as green economy, circular economy, sustainable development, sustainability, sustainable finance, sustainable entrepreneurship, corporate responsibility and climate change. b. What the connection and relevance is among all these. c. To learn about all these through personal involvement and in an experiential and empirical way. The website of the project is available at http://www.ieectqai.uned.es/sfinlit-project/ and the course is available at https://www.sfinlit-project.eu/.