The Edufinet Project, promoted by Unicaja Banco and Fundación Unicaja, begins a new academic year reinforcing its objective of ensuring the financial inclusion of all demographics, especially the youngest and those over 65 years of age.
The activities of the new academic year include the ‘Edufinet Ambassadors’ programme, which will contribute to improving the skills of senior citizens to handle financial management services, especially through digital channels.
Other highlights include the 5th Financial Education Congress, which will take place in November under the slogan ‘The challenge of ensuring financial inclusion in a changing environment’, and which will pay special attention to senior citizens, and the 14th Conferences on Financial Education for Young People, which aim to continue promoting economic knowledge, skills and abilities that will enable students to understand the importance of key concepts in the world of finance.
These initiatives were presented on Thursday as part of the activities organized by Edufinet on the occasion of the Financial Education Day, promoted by the Financial Education Plan (PEF), with the participation of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, the Bank of Spain, the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) and associations and institutions from all sectors. This year the goal was to teach the different demographics the concepts of secure financing and investment and the particularities to be taken into account related to cybersecurity and cyber-risks.
Edufinet Ambassadors
‘Edufinet Ambassadors’ is a financial education programme aimed at the elderly, to teach basic notions with a practical approach, focusing on issues related to transactions with accounts at sight, cards and cyber-risk prevention, among other subjects, especially in the digital banking environment (mobile applications and websites) and ATMs.
In parallel, and with the support of other institutions or associations, the project seeks ‘ambassadors’ in different towns, that is, people who, on a voluntary basis and with a vocation of permanence, will become a point of liaison with the elderly, so that they can learn about their concerns and needs and thus facilitate the adaptation of the training provided by Edufinet at any given time.
The ‘ambassadors’ will also receive training for them to transmit -in coordination with Edufinet- the knowledge and skills that senior citizens need to acquire.
Edufinet Congress
Financial inclusion will also be the common thread of the lectures at the Edufinet Financial Education Congress, which will be held from 16 to 18 November, sponsored by Funcas. The congress allows for attendance in person at the Fundación Unicaja Cultural Center in Malaga (Palacio Episcopal) and online.
The congress will feature round tables on issues such as access to financial services for senior citizens, financial education as a means to avoid social exclusion, specialties in financial consumer protection and personal data protection, and financial education in the world of sports, among others.
The 14th Conferences on Financial Education for Young People have also been presented this Thursday. These workshops aim to provide secondary and high school students with a clear vision of the world of finance, and in their last edition had more than 11,000 participants from schools in 38 Spanish provinces. The 14th Financial Olympics, a competition to demonstrate the knowledge acquired, are linked to the said workshops.
Financial Education Week
As part of the Financial Education Week, Edufinet has carried out a series of activities aimed at highlighting the importance of training and information to operate safely through digital channels.
Thus, on Monday, Financial Education Day, Edufinet held a webinar on security in cryptocurrency operations. On Tuesday, it gave a talk on cybercrime, with the participation of agents from the National Police Force and members of Unicaja Banco’s Cybersecurity Department.
On Wednesday, innovation in banking and security in the cloud were discussed, with the collaboration of Aula 42 of Fundación Telefónica, and today, Thursday, the annual meeting of Edufinet and the presentation of the new publications published by the Project have taken place at the Unicaja Center for Financial Education in Malaga.
This has been followed by the presentation of the 14th Conferences on Financial Education for Young People, the 14th Financial Olympics and the 5th Edufinet Financial Education Congress. This event has been attended by the Head of the Department of Conduct of Entities of the Bank of Spain, Fernando Tejada; the Coordinator of Financial Education of the Strategy Department of the CNMV, María Eugenia Cadenas; the Manager of Funcas, Antonio Martín; the General Manager of Fundación Unicaja, Sergio Corral; the Director General of General and Technical Secretariat of Unicaja Banco, Vicente Orti, and the Head of the Edufinet Project, José M. Domínguez.
The program of activities will end tomorrow, Friday, with the publication on EdufiBlog of an article on secure finance.
