The participants had to deliver a presentation on the case study that they had analyzed at the online platform, and then they had to answer questions made by the jury. The winners have been Silvia Guerrero, from IES Severo Ochoa in Granada, in the first place; Jaime Mena, from IES Padre Manjón in Granada, in second place, and Victor Ramos, from Colegio SEK-Alborán, from El Ejido (Almería), in third position. Seven additional awards have been delivered.
Out of the nearly 2,000 students who registered in the X Financial Olympics, nearly 300 have finished the case study. This competition supplements the X Conferences on Financial Education for Young People, organized from October 2018 to March 2019 and attended by over 19,000 students.
Ten students from six Secondary Education and Baccalaureate high schools from Almeria, Granda, Sevilla and Huelva have participated today in the final of the X Financial Olympics of the Edufinet Project, fostered by Unicaja Banco and Fundación Unicaja. A total of 2,000 students registered in this competition, which has featured a new format this year, as a videogame was used to solve a case study.
Once the 10 finalists have presented to the panel of judges the conclusions of their analysis, and have answered the questions made, the winners of this X Financial Olympics have been Silvia Guerrero, from IES Severo Ochoa in Granada, in the first place; Jaime Mena, from IES Padre Manjón in Granada, in second position, and Víctor Ramos, from Colegio SEK-Alborán in El Ejido (Almería), in third place.
Seven additional awards have been delivered to the following students: Nerea del Mar Álvarez, from IES Alhamilla in Almería; Claudia Calvo and Paula Vallejo, from IES Severo Ochoa in Granada; Elena Cantón, from Colegio SEK-Alborán in El Ejido (Almería); Laura Carabias and Marta Díaz, from IES Juan de Mairena, in Mairena del Aljarafe (Sevilla), and Rafael Oliva, from IES Puerta de Andalucía in Santa Olalla del Cala (Huelva).
As for the prizes, the winner has received a 64GB iPhone 8, the second one, a 32GB iPad, and the third one, a 32GB iPod Touch. The teachers and high schools of the winners have also received prizes.
As a new feature this year, the first part of the Financial Olympics has been developed online, with a case study to be solved using a platform with a videogame-simulation format. The students had to make decisions on investment and financing according to the information that they had and to the random and changing economic and personal events. Out of the nearly 2,000 students initially registered, from Almeria, Cadiz, Cordoba, Huelva, Granada, Jaen, Malaga, Sevilla, Valladolid, Ciudad Real, Toledo, Melilla and Madrid¸ some 300 have completed their participation.
Presentation of awards
Today’s event has been attended by the Head of Technical Cabinet, Efficiency and Studies of Unicaja Banco and member of the working team of Edufinet Project, Rafael López del Paso; the Manager of Awards and Publications of Fundación Unicaja, Francisco Cañadas; the Head of Welfare Projects and Customer Relations of CECA, Juan Carlos López; the Chief of Education Planning of the Department of Education of the Junta de Andalucía in Malaga, Jesús Anés, and by the Head of the Bank of Spain branch in Malaga, Adolfo Gil.
Also, during the event, held at the Unicaja Financial Education Center in Malaga, the finalists have participated in the draw of a scholarship for the School and Family Experience in the USA ‘Becas USA Unicaja 2019’, made in the presence of a notary public.
Panel of judges
The jury that has determined the winners has been composed by the Head of Technical Cabinet, Efficiency and Studies of Unicaja Banco and member of the working team of Edufinet Project, Rafael López del Paso; the Manager of Awards and Publications of Fundación Unicaja, Francisco Cañadas; the Head of Welfare Projects and Customer Relations of CECA, Juan Carlos López; the Head of the Bank of Spain branch in Malaga, Adolfo Gil; the Director of the Secretariat of Employability and Entrepreneurship of the UJA, Raúl Mata; the lecture of the UCO, Pablo Rodrígue; the Head of the Department of Financial Economics, Accounting and Operation Management of the UHU, Juan José de la Vega, and the Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business Science of the UMA, Eugenio Luque.
The following have also been part of the jury: Francisca García, lecturer at the UNED Malaga; the General Coordinator of Entrepreneurship of the UGR, María del Mar Fuentes; Mercedes Luque, lecturer at the UBU, Raúl Rico, Manager at La Opinión de Málaga, and Fernando Ortega, Manager at Málaga Hoy.
In general, the panel of judges remarked the results of this X Financial Olympics and focused on the large participation, congratulating the young attendants.
The X Financial Olympicas are a supplement to the X Conferences on Financial Education for Young People, organized by Edufinet throughout the last quarter of 2018 and the first one of 2019, attended by more than 19,000 Secondary Education and Baccalaureate students from nearly 300 high schools in different provinces of the country, mainly from Andalusia, Castilla y Leon, Castilla-La Mancha, Melilla and Madrid.
Edufinet Project: nearly 15 years of history
The Edufinet Project was launched in 2007, although its development began in 2005, within Unicaja, with the collaboration of the Univervidad Internacional de Andalucía (UNIA) and of the University of Malaga (UMA). This has made Unicaja to be one of the first financial institutions in Spain to launch an initiative of this kind, a work that has been recognized with several awards.
Since then, more than 146,600 people have participated in the different conferences, workshops and lectures developed by the Edufinet Project, of which 108,000 have participated through the Conferences on Financial Education for Young People. It collaborates with 14 universities and more than ten business organizations and institutions.