Aflateen

Social and financial education for engagement, entrepreneurship and employment

About the project

The general objective of the project was to empower young people and their parents to become agents of change for themselves and their communities through the development of their civic and social competences. The aim was to provide a solution to the lack of financial and entrepreneurship education in Hungary, Serbia, and Slovakia, which has been identified as one of the roots of high unemployment rates among young people in the region.

The specific objective of our project was to develop and adapt a curriculum for the development of social and financial competences of young people aged 15-18, to be used by youth workers in their daily work, and a training material for trainers to train youth workers in the use of this curriculum as the correct approach is essential in this field of competence development and cannot be achieved by simply downloading the prepared curriculum and using it.

Following the development of the materials, we trained 5 trainers per country who will be the ambassadors of the new approach, as well as the trainers in the following international training of youth workers. We involved 20 youth workers from 10 NGOs/youth organisations in each country in the pilot training. Involving them in pursuing one common cause also naturally created multiple networking opportunities for them.

The trainers reached more than 600 young people in the three countries. They received online mentoring and support during this phase of the project. After the pilot training and field testing, we disseminated the experience of the programme to a wider audience of stakeholders at national level through the round table discussions organised in each country, and at international level at the final conference, where participants from all countries had the opportunity to present the results of the project. We used the Aflatoun network in more than 100 countries to share the knowledge generated through newsletters, online platforms and Facebook. Through digital channels, youth workers and children will be able to connect with a network of peers from 106 countries and exchange knowledge, skills and ideas with them. They will also be linked to the Aflateen Digital platform, where young people (teenagers) can learn more about activism and collective action.

At a time when there is a growing need for financial literacy and entrepreneurial skills for all citizens, our research has shown that neither children nor adults (both teachers and parents) have the required skills. Most existing initiatives to support educational institutions and civil society to help young people acquire the financial and entrepreneurial skills needed for better employability and inclusion in the labour market and society focus narrowly on project and business plan development and project management, without providing broader skills for saving, investing or other financial aspects. There is also a lack of active parental involvement in the development of the social and financial skills of their children.