With regard to the Conferences on Financial Education, they intend to raise awareness among the youth of the importance of financial literacy. And in relation to the Congress, it will focus on the challenges to be faced by financial education, the possible actions to perform or the efficiency of the existing programmes.
These activities were presented on Thursday in an event held during the week of the Financial Education Day, promoted by the Spanish Financial Education Plan (Plan de Educación Financiera, PEF), developed jointly by the Bank of Spain and the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV). Representatives of both institutions and of the Andalusian Government were present at the event.
The Edufinet Project, fostered by Unicaja Banco and Fundación Unicaja, will organize, among the activities planned for this season, the X Conferences on Financial Education for Young People (starting on 15 October) and the International Congress on Financial Education ‘Realities and Challenges’, to be held in Malaga on 22 and 23 November, with over fifty speakers and moderators from different fields and from institutions from Spain and other European countries and the United States.
The Congress will put an end to the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Edufinet Project (2007-2017). In sum, the goal of both initiatives is to raise awareness of financial literacy, to identify the challenges and to increase the efficiency of the financial education programmes.
This was expressed today in an event within the celebration of the Financial Education Day, promoted by the Financial Education Plan (Plan de Educación Financiera, PEF), developed jointly by the Bank of Spain and Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).
The event, held in Malaga, was attended by the Head of the Edufinet Project and Unicaja Banco’s General Director of General and Technical Secretariat, José M. Domínguez, and by the General Director of Fundación Unicaja, Sergio Corral, as well as by the Bank of Spain’s Director of Department of Market Conduct and Claims Department, Fernando Tejada, the Deputy of Financial Education of the Strategy and Institutional Relations Department of the CNMV, Gloria Caballero, and the Head of Service of Educational Planning of the Territorial Delegation for Education of the Andalusian Government in Malaga, David Márquez. From the said institution, María Teresa Rodríguez de Sepúlveda was also present.
During the event, the X Conferences on Financial Education for Young People were presented. The workshops will start on 15 October and aim at Secondary Education and Baccalaureate students. This initiative is linked to the X Financial Olympics, a competition where the participants will put into practice the acquired knowledge and skills and which, new this year, will be held partially online.
The Conferences on Financial Education for Young People recorded last year a participation of more than 18,300 high school students from Andalusia, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura and Ceuta and Melilla. Students from Austria, Hungary, Italy, Czech Republic and Romania also received training in a workshop given, for the first time, in English.
Financial Education Congress
With regard to the International Congress on Financial Education (www.edufinetcongress.com), to be held in Malaga, in Unicaja Banco’s auditorium in Avenida de Andalucía, 10-12, and supported by the Foundation of Savings Banks (Funcas, Fundación de las Cajas de Ahorros), it will cover different topics such as the challenges faced by financial education, the possible actions to implement or the efficiency of the current programmes. For those purposes, it will have the knowledge and experience of over fifty participants, including speakers and moderators, from public and private institutions from Spain, from other EU countries and from the United States.
In sum, with this appointment the Edufinet Project intends to create a meeting point between the main agents involved in financial education, such as professionals, academics and representatives from institutions.
The agenda of the Congress ‘Realities and Challenges’ will include 10 sessions, to be held on 22 and 23 November. The opening session will cover ‘The challenges of financial education in a transforming society’. As previous activities, on 20 November there will be a practical exercise on financial psychology, and on 21, several workshops will be organized.
As for the ten sessions, these will deal with different topics and will be organized under different sections. Sessions of 22 November will cover the following areas: level of financial literacy of the Spanish population; transfer of financial knowledge; how to measure the economic return for the society of a financial education project; good practices in financial education; financial literacy, cognitive bias and the influence of the background; and financial education and entrepreneurship. Additionally, several roundtables will be organized where journalists will express the image of financial education that the media have.
The four remaining sessions will be developed on the second day of the Congress, 23 November: how to measure the returns in the population of a financial education project, the analysis of economic and financial knowledge in the educational curricula, the influence of digitalization in the dissemination of financial knowledge, and the relationship between financial education and financial inclusion. The Head of the Edufinet Project, José M. Domínguez, will close the event with the presentation of the Congress conclusions.
Supplementary activities
Some supplementary activities will be developed at Unicaja Financial Education Center (avenida de Andalucía, 23), such as a practical case on financial psychology, on 20 November. Additional information on these activities will be posted on the Congress website.
On 21 November, four workshops will be held, dealing with basic concepts of Law for financial education; proposals and initiatives from the acquired training experience; financial education as a tool for the knowledge of the tax reality by citizens and companies, and the role of the media in the dissemination of financial literacy.
Edufinet Project
The Edufinet Project, was launched at the end of 2007, although its development began in 2005, within Unicaja, with the collaboration of the International University of Andalusia (Universidad Internacional de Andalucía, UNIA) and the University of Malaga (UMA). This was a pioneering financial education inititative.
Edufinet is fostered nowadays by Unicaja Banco and Fundación Unicaja, and it collaborates with 14 universities and over ten institutions and business organizations.
Edufinet has received several awards and more than 127,600 people have participated in the different conferences, workshops, lectures and seminars developed, of which 89,000 have attended the Conferences on Financial Education for Young People. The websites www.edufinet.com has registered so far more than 7.6 million visits, with access from nearly 180 countries.
