7th April, 2017

Associação Portuguesa de Bancos (APB Portuguese Banking Association) and Junior Achievement Portugal have formed a partnership that will bring financial education to over 1,000 primary and secondary students. The aim is for these young people to learn about issues that are so important to their future lives, such as saving, loans and means of payment.

These programmes will be starting this school year and will last on a larger scale into the next. Volunteers from the 10 banks making up the APB’s Financial Education Working Group will be giving courses in partnership with JA Portugal.

 

The work at the schools will take different forms with the idea of not only providing information but also allowing the students to think about and understand these matters that are apparently complex but essential to their lives as they grow up.

 

The children and young people segment is a priority for the banking sector and the courses are given in conjunction with the APB or directly by its member banks. This cooperation will allow the APB to undertake an ongoing programme based on a strategy intended to be long term and not just sporadic.

European Money Week, a European bank initiative for improving financial literacy, was the starting point for the partnership last week.

 

In representation of the APB members, the four largest banks in Portugal – CGD, BCP, Novo Banco and Santander Totta – received 20 students from different schools. They were divided into groups of five and got to see behind the scenes at these banks during visits partly hosted by the CEOs themselves. The idea was the make them aware of the importance of financial literacy through interaction with the banks’ management staff, Q&A sessions and the opportunity for them to get a better idea of how banks work and their role in the economy.

 

This new partnership is based on the conviction that the sector’s know-how combined with Junior Achievement’s experience in working with schools will result in work with positive, concrete effects.

 

JA is a non-profit organisation that operates in 122 countries. It has been in Portugal since 2005 and has involved more than 250,000 students in activities associated with financial literacy, citizenship and ethics, career development and entrepreneurship.