The Edufinet Project, a financial education program promoted by Fundación Unicaja and Unicaja, in its ongoing work to promote financial education and inclusion of society as a whole, works permanently to improve its training activity and extend it to the maximum number of citizens. In this sense, Edufinet expands its scope and field of action, to transfer, for the first time, the keys to the digital and financial world to the prison environment.
Specifically, it has given two financial education sessions at Centro Penitenciario Puerto II, located in El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz), where around 20 inmates have participated in each one of them. During these two-hour sessions, in addition to learning first-hand about the work developed by the Edufinet Project, the attendees have acquired basic concepts and notions that favor decision-making in the management of their own economy. Likewise, this training has been aimed at learning knowledge and skills in the handling of digital banking in its different formats and supports, as well as practical advice on how to act and protect themselves in terms of cybersecurity.
With this initiative, Edufinet aims to facilitate the financial inclusion of people deprived of liberty, in their social reintegration process, through the transmission of knowledge and skills that help them to decide and choose the most appropriate solutions, related to the management and protection of their personal and digital finances.
In the first of these sessions, held last 25 June, the inmates received information and recommendations on cybersecurity measures, to teach them how to surf the Internet safely. Also to identify and prevent possible financial fraud and cyber-attacks in various channels and contexts, as well as in online purchases and means of payment. In short, the aim is for this group to incorporate certain guidelines on security in their digital financial transactions and, in general, in their daily lives, in order to be prepared and protected against the presence of risks in different scenarios and platforms.
On the second day, which took place the following day, the professionals of the Edufinet team focused their intervention on the world of entrepreneurship, showing the attendees the main keys to start up a business, as well as different options to carry it out. They also addressed various issues of interest such as money management and the different payment methods, as well as the types of basic financial products currently offered by the market, both in terms of savings, financing and insurance, among many other aspects.
Two decades of finanical education
The Edufinet Project has been promoting financial education and inclusion actions for two decades, making it one of the pioneering programs in Spain in this field. It currently has the collaboration of 17 universities and ten business institutions and organizations, with the aim of increasing the economic and financial skills and knowledge of the population.
Its website (www.edufinet.com) offers practical and educational information on the financial world through different sections (Edufinext, Edufiemp, Edufitech, Edufiblog, Edufisport, Edufiagro and Edufiacademics). As part of its work, this altruistic and sustainable project combines the development of activities in both classroom and online formats, aimed at all types of audiences. It also has two centers specialized in financial education, in Malaga and Salamanca.
Since it was set up, more than 300,000 people have participated in person in the different seminars, workshops, courses and conferences it has organized. Its web portals have received more than 11 million sessions, with access from some 180 countries and close to 20 million page views. Other of its main lines of action are its publications and its outreach work through its social media profiles (YouTube, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok) and the podcast platforms iVoox and Spotify.
Its work has been distinguished 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.
