The Edufinet Project, promoted by Unicaja Banco and Fundación Unicaja, started on Monday at IES Severo Ochoa in Granada the first workshops of a new edition of its Conferences on Financial Education for Young People, to provide Secondary and Baccalaureate students with a clear view of the economic and financial world. The Financial Olympics are linked to these workshops.
The high school IES Severo Ochoa has been chosen to receive the first session of the 13th edition of the Conferences on Financial Education for Young People because it was the winner of the 12th Financial Olympics, held in May.
After being held online during the last year, due to the situation caused by the COVID-19, this school year the Conferences on Financial Education for Young People will combine in person and online sessions.
Over its 12 editions, this initiative has reached 115,000 participants. Invitations to participate have been extended to high schools from Andalusia, Castilla y Leon, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Madrid, Aragón, Canarias, Cantabria, Cataluña, Comunidad Valenciana, Galicia, Islas Baleares, La Rioja, Navarra, Principado de Asturias, Región de Murcia, Ceuta and Melilla.
This new edition intends to continue teaching the basic aspects of economics and finance, paying special attention to the financial products and services that students use or will use throughout their life.
Practical workshops of 60 to 90 minutes are delivered, adapted to the needs of young people and addressing topics such as income vs. wealth; Gross Domestic Product (GDP); inflation; interest rates; financial system, digital transformation and sustainable finance; term and sight accounts, cards and investment funds; crypto-currencies; or loans. All of the previous is explained analyzing those aspects to be considered in decision-making and assessing the consequences that those decisions may involve.
The Edufinet Project will also organize during this school year 2021-2022 the Conferences on Financial Education for Vocational Training Students and, for the first time, the Workshops on Financial Education for Primary School Children.
Edufinet, a pioneering and awarded initiative
Edufinet was launched at the end of 2007, although its development began in 2005 within Unicaja, with the collaboration of the Universidad Internacional de Andalucía (UNIA) and University of Malaga (UMA).
Edufinet has the support of 16 universities and more than ten business institutions and organizations. Since it was launched, more than 15 years ago, over 180,000 people have participated in the different workshops, lectures, courses and seminars that it organizes.
The website www.edufinet.com has registered so far more than 9.5 million visits, with access from nearly 180 countries. Edufinet offers two additional specific Internet portals: one aimed at young people (Edufinext) and one aimed at business owners and entrerpreneurs (Edufiemp).
All of the above have made Unicaja, one of the first institutions in Spain to launch an initiative of that kind, to be one of the most active agents in the areas of financial education and inclusion, in the exercise of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and of the commitment to society both of Unicaja Banco and of Fundación Unicaja.