The Edufinet Project, promoted by Unicaja Banco and Fundación Unicaja, has taken, for the first time, finance education to more than 30 members of Asociación Asperger Madrid (Madrid Asperger Association) through an online workshop. The goal is to teach basic knowledge on financial education so that the members of this association can act with higher autonomy in this area.
Through seven 1-hour sessions, persons Asperger syndrome and their relatives have learnt first-hand the work of the Edufinet Project, the role of banks and the main financial transactions (deposits, withdrawals, transfers and direct debits), as well as concepts related to family budget (payrolls and their components), for instance
This training activity has also covered the most usual means of payment, such as cards, Paypal, Bizum and other online banking platforms, explaining how they work and insisting on the importance of security in the internet.
Participants have also learnt about other financial products such as loans and about the main terms and economic indicators which make part of the day-to-day life, such as GDP, inflation, interest rates, exchange rate or public debt.
Asociación Asperger Madrid (https://www.aspergermadrid.org/inicio) is a public interest not-for-profit association created in 2003 by a group of relatives and persons with Asperger syndrome, currently classified as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The association defends the rights of its members and provides services to enhance the psycho-social integration of its more than 400 members.
Financial education programme pioneering in Spain
With over 15 years of history, the Edufinet Project is one of the financial education programmes pioneering in Spain, whose work has been recognized with several awards. Currently 16 universities and ten business organizations and institutions collaborate with the project.
Edufinet Project has been available, through an Internet portal for the general public, since the end of 2007, although its development began in 2005. Currently, due to the situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is promoting initiatives such as webinars, broadcasted on its YouTube channel (channel: Proyecto Edufinet).
In the exercise of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Edufinet has continued to offer, during this time, several online resources to keep in contact with citizens. For that purpose, it has the website http://www.edufinet.com and two specific portals (Edufiemp, for business owners and entrepreneurs, and Edufinext, for young people), as well as accounts on Twitter and Facebook.
