Financial Education
The primary goal of the Financial Education project was to integrate a general financial education into the curriculum of academic secondary schools. Young people should acquire the ability to understand financial matters and make sensible economic decisions. The Financial Education project contributes to raising the standard of knowledge on this subject in Europe.
Ever since the recent financial and economic crises, it is apparent that there is a chasm between what the financial system means for our modern lives and our understanding of it. In light of their social relevance, financial topics should really be part of a general education. Yet public understanding of how various aspects of the financial system are connected is limited.
A considerable proportion of the negative developments in the financial sector over the past few years can be explained by the fact that people bought – or even themselves sold – a variety of financial products without really adequately understanding either how they work or their economic significance.
Content and teaching methods
The project investigated how aspects of financial education can be integrated into teaching at academic secondary schools and their equivalents in Austria, Germany, Latvia and Belgium, without having to change existing curricula. The focus was on topics relevant to young people in their everyday lives: managing their money sensibly, the role of credit and savings schemes, safeguarding assets, and dealing with risk.
Course content and teaching methods have been developed and tested in practice together with partner schools in Graz, Zweibrücken (Germany), Leuven (Belgium) and Riga (Latvia). The results from this pilot phase have been used to create teaching materials which are available to teachers at academic secondary schools via the project website.