On 1 December, at its head office in Rostov-on-Don, Center-invest Bank hosted a conference on "Developing Financial Education in Rostov-on-Don’s Schools". Teachers from 70 Rostov schools attended the event.
Center-invest Bank is an example of a socially responsible business. Through its own work it shows how the financial literacy of the population can be improved and why this is necessary. For this reason, Center-invest Bank’s Congress Hall was selected as the venue for the conference. The delegates gathered to share information about useful initiatives in financial literacy and how to introduce children to the world of finance so that younger generations can manage money wisely and responsibly and take sensible financial decisions in the future.
Investing in financial literacy in southern Russia, Center-invest Bank gave its support to a project of the Association of Banks of Russia ("the Russia Association") and the Russian Finance Ministry to develop a comprehensive system of extracurricular courses on financial literacy. Thanks to the bank’s financial assistance, for the start of the 2017-2018 academic year, all Rostov-on-Don schools received "Let’s Learn Sensible Financial Behaviour" teaching packs. The packs include textbooks for children of different ages, as well as resources for teachers and parents. The schools received a total of 11,000 books on financial literacy.
The conference was opened by the deputy chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee for Education and Science, Larisa Tutova; the head of the administrative staff of the Russia Association’s Board, Georgy Medvedev; and Chairman of Center-invest Bank’s Board of Directors, Dr Vasily Vysokov.
"The textbooks presented today are designed for teaching financial literacy from primary school age," said Larisa Tutova. "The earlier we start familiarizing children with these issues, the sooner it will become an essential part of life for them. Financial literacy is fundamental not only for personal and economic security, but also for national security. That is why in September of this year, Russia adopted a National Financial Literacy Strategy".
The head of the Rostov Region Department of the Federal Tax Service, Dmitry Fotinov, spoke about its work to improve financial literacy. In 2016 a tax literacy project was launched in all of the region’s schools. This project was initiated by the Rostov Region Department of the Federal Tax Service, the Rostov Region Education Ministry, Center-invest Bank and Southern University,
During the conference, Dr Vasily Vysokov presented a set of resources on basic financial literacy to the director of the Information and Analysis Centre for Education in Rostov-on-Don, Igor Filippov.
"In contrast to international financial literacy programmes for young people, where the emphasis is on producing "cannon fodder" for speculation on the financial markets, Center-invest Bank focuses on systems knowledge," said Dr Vysokov. "To succeed in life, you need to know your business, your markets, your advantages in these markets, and how to do the "jigsaw puzzle" of managing production, marketing, finance and personnel.
Svetlana Gerasimova, an Economics and ICT Teacher and Deputy Head at a school in Volgodonsk, made practical recommendations concerning the development of financial literacy education programmes, based on her own school’s experience.
The managers of the Financial Literacy Centre in Rostov-on-Don, Vladislav Soleny and Kristina Minko, spoke about international best practice in financial literacy, as seen in southern Russia.
The conference delegates warmly thanked Rostov-on-Don’s teachers for helping to educate the city’s schoolchildren in financial literacy.
Center-invest Bank supports and helps to develop government programmes to improve financial literacy. It is a federal partner of the Russian Finance Ministry for training initiatives.
To improve financial literacy everywhere, since 2013 Center-invest Bank has provided a multilingual online course, Enterprise for All, which offers free training in the basics of entrepreneurship and taxation. Over 33,000 people have already taken part in this educational project. Certificates are issued upon successful completion of the course.