Money & Life Skills – Financial Capability Made Easy Erasmus Project

Project Title

Money & Life Skills – Financial Capability Made Easy

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; Open and distance learning; Economic and financial affairs (incl. funding issues)

Project Summary

The escalating numbers of low income and unemployed young adults (18-35) constitutes a severe social problem in the European Union. This group makes up to 40 % of the total young adults in Europe. The OECD states that low income jobs and unemployment leave a “wage scar”, whereby people who are unemployed when they should be at the start of their career can suffer from lower than average wages for decades afterwards. Youth unemployment and low income also does further damage by undermining pension savings, placing millions of young people across Europe at risk of having an inadequate income when they are older.

Improving the financial capability of such a disadvantaged group in the EU society will have significant benefits for everyone, since good financial literacy skills help individuals, in combination with other economic “life skills”, to make the most of opportunities, meet their goals, secure their financial well-being, and contribute to the economic health of society.

There is a great need to equip those young adults with skills to manage their income in a way that will sustain their quality of life and their financial and civic competences at decent levels. However, currently available financial literacy trainings are structured in theoretical terms such as “budgeting” and “stock market participation”. We believe that we must refer to real-life situations of these young people, if we want them to become more competent. Therefore, our e-learning modules cover aspects such as:
1. My first car
2. Getting married
3. Renting a house
4. Buying a house
5. Expecting a baby
6. Getting divorced
7. Losing a job
8. Accident / illness
9. Making use of consumer rights
10. Retirement
11. Getting a mobile phone
12. Holidays
13. Studying
14. Building your credit score
15. ….

We developed clear and simple learning materials in the languages of the partnership which upgrade the economic resources of low income and unemployed young adults in Europe.

The overall objectives of the Money & Life Skills project build on the policy priorities of the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships for adults and for all fields:
• Re-skilling, up-skilling literacy, numeracy and digital skills and civic competences: Money & Life Skills has strong focus in improving numeracy, digital, and financial skills, while indirectly it also improves the users’ language and reading skills;
• Access to Open Educational Resources in Education and Training: Money & Life Skills is fully deployed through open and free access online tools and mediums such an e-learning platform, mobile applications, social media, multimedia applications and networking;
• Modernize education systems: The Money & Life Skills online modules are accredited based on the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), where each module have a certain number of ECTS credits, in order to secure easy integration in education systems
• Awareness raising: Money Skills was supported by a wide awareness raising campaign through social media, multimedia, dissemination seminars and conferences.

The three target groups are
• teachers, trainers in adult education and in integration measures, labour office advisers and job counsellors, who will use the didactic materials that can be used in various educational settings
• financially disadvantaged young adults who are either unemployed or employed on an income lower than the EU average as the final beneficiaries who can use the e-learning modules
• adult training institutions, debt counselling services, social services, local community groups, youth organizations, civil society organizations, higher education institutions) as stakeholders

The immediate impact, already during the validation phase, is the transfer of knowledge and skills to approx. 100 financially disadvantaged young adults who are either unemployed or employed on an income lower than the EU average to approx. 150 experts and key actors who will also be involved in the pilot test phase. We assume that they are working with approx. 20,000 clients (financially disadvantaged young adults, etc.) each year. After having been involved in the pilot tests, they are able to implement the project’s concept directly afterwards in their regular counselling activities. For the long-term impact we have estimated that in the countries of the partnership alone, more than 25.000 persons who are working as debt counsellors, social counsellors, labour office advisers or in similar professions will be informed through the Guidelines and e-learning materials in their native languages.

The project fits into the common underlying strategy of the partners insofar as the concept is in line with their overall research or educational activities and programmes. The transnational cooperation of partners, the majority of them working in social research and/or as adult and vocational training providers, enrich the quality of the results and render them immediately applicable for exploitation.

Project Website

http://moneylifeskills.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 262535,39 Eur

Project Coordinator

Stowarzyszenie “EBI ASSOCIATION” & Country: PL

Project Partners

• INTEGRA INSTITUT INSTITUT ZA RAZVOJ CLOVEKOVIH POTENCIALOV VELENJE
• QUALED obcianske zdruzenie pre kvalifikáciu a vzdelávanje
• AKADIMAIKO DIADIKTYO
• Wissenschaftsinitiative Niederösterreich (WIN)
• Asociación andaluza de apoyo a la infancia – ALDAIMA
• Ente Bilaterale Veneto