The Edufinet Proyect on financial education, promoted by Fundación Unicaja and Unicaja, held the final of its 16th Financial Olympics for young people on Friday at the Edufinet Financial Education Center in Malaga.
During the final of the Olympics, a contest that has had one more year the support of Funcas Educa, the five best papers submitted by students of Secondary Education, Baccalaureate and Vocational Training have been awarded. These students have been selected from a total of 626 who have participated in this edition of the Financial Olympics, with the support of 282 teachers, and, previously, in the Edufinet’s 16th Conference on Financial Education for Young People.
The five finalists, who, on this occasion, come from schools in the provinces of Almeria, Cordoba, Granada, Huelva and Sevilla, presented the conclusions of their work to the jury today. The winners are: Luna Rodríguez, from IES Antonio María Calero in Pozoblanco (Córdoba), who won first prize; Álvaro Arenas, from IES Severo Ochoa, Granada, who won second place, and Hugo Labra, from IES Juan Antonio Pérez Mercader de Aljaraque (Huelva), who came in third. In addition, two runners-up prizes were awarded to Lucas Pinart, from IES SEK Alborán in El Ejido (Almería), and Miguel Ángel Ortega, from IES Las Encinas in Valencina de la Concepción (Seville).
This year, the first place winner received an iPhone 15 as a prize, while the second place winner received a 64 GB iPad and the third place winner received an Amazfit 4 smartwatch. The teachers and the winning centers also received awards.
This contest complements the activities developed within the framework of the 16th Conference on Financial Education for Young People, in which nearly 24,000 students of Secondary Education, Baccalaureate and Vocational Training from more than 40 Spanish provinces and 16 autonomous communities have participated during this academic year, through 700 training sessions given by the Edufinet work team.
Contest and composition of the jury
During the first phase of the competition, participants had to solve a case study, provided on the online platform olimpiadas.edufinet.com, on investment options and loan choice, and write a final report, explaining the financial decisions made and answering a series of questions related to the case study. Students had up to three opportunities to improve their score.
This year, a question-and-answer game on financial education, ‘Maxi Bonus’, was also incorporated into the platform, allowing students to increase their final grade by up to 15%, with a maximum number of ten attempts. To do so, it was necessary to have completed the case study at least once. With this educational game, 12 financial statements were posed, with a true-false answer format, which had to be answered in a maximum time of 90 seconds.
This Friday, the finalist students presented the conclusions of their reports to the jury, who highlighted the high level of the work presented. On this occasion, the jury was composed of: the member of the Edufinet Project José Antonio Díaz; the head of Social Activities of Fundación Unicaja, Gerardo Lerones; the head of Financial Education of Unicaja, Mª Eugenia Martínez-Oña; the head of the branch of the Bank of Spain in Malaga, Adolfo Gil, and the technical general secretary of the Association of Economists of Malaga, Isabel Rodríguez.
On behalf of the university institutions that collaborate with Edufinet, the head of the Secretariat of Employability, Student Entrepreneurship and Alumni Program of the University of Jaén, Mª Rosa Vallecillo; the dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business Science of the University of Málaga (UMA), Ana José Cisneros; the professor of the UNED Málaga, Francisca García; the professor of the University of Córdoba (UCO), José Antonio Fernández, were also part of this tribunal. At the awards ceremony, the players of Unicaja Baloncesto Yankuba Sima and Unicaja Mijas Marta Ortega participated.
With two decades of experience behind it, the Edufinet Project is one of the pioneering financial education programs in Spain and currently enjoys the collaboration of ten institutions and business organizations, as well as 17 universities. Its work has been distinguished throughout this time with several awards, among them, the Finance for All 2024 Award, granted by the Financial Education Plan, in the category of best financial education initiative, and three distinctions in the CECA Awards for Social Work and Financial Education 2023-2024. It has also been recognized as a finalist in the Vuela 2024 Awards.
