financial literacy in poland 2014

Volgograd, September 8-9, 2014Inter-regional Conference «Improving Financial Literacy: Best Practices and Perspectives»

POLISH EXPERIENCE IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF NATIONAL INFORMATION AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS

Marcin PolakFuturedu Consulting & Think! Foundation

Warsaw, PolandPhoto: Fotolia.com

Index

Introduction with PISA 2012 Financial education in Poland Financial literacy initiatives - cases How to design programs? What more is important

Photo: sxc.hu

NOT ONLY FINANCIAL KNOWLEDGE

Openess for learning (yes, I can learn that) Motivation for learning (ok, I will start to learn) Awareness (I understand that I need to...) Self-control, self-discipline, improving (I can't do

that... but I can do that...)

Financial Literacy is about MENTAL CHANGE & BEHAVIOUR

INTRODUCTION - PISA 2012

Poland has got a good score in PISA 2012 Students and Money Results, getting above the OECD average. Somehow that was a surprise for many educators.

The PISA financial literacy assessment provides an overall picture of 15-year-olds’ ability to apply their accumulated knowledge and skills to real-life situations involving financial issues and decisions.


Poland scored above the OECD average...


Poland has a poor curriculum for financial education and least number of hours for it...


In most cases teachers provide financial education for students in Polish schools...


... but it seems they are rather unprepared for that task.


In case of Poland it is not school that was responsible for good results of students in PISA 2012 test

Financial education in school is important but this is only an introduction to the world of finance. What a student learns is basic financial knowledge which may have rather a limited influence on performance of citizens later in real life and in front of real financial problems

There are probably other channels of social education, which are responsible for good performance of people in the financial market

FINANCIAL EDUCATION IN POLAND

Poland – an interesting case on the financial literacy world map, with a long development in that field (since 2002)

No National Strategy – the Government has never be interested in promoting financial literacy in organized way. No single coordination office for nationwide FL campaign

The leading role of the central bank – the National Bank of Poland (NBP) has its educational strategy (6y perspectives) and objectives (yearly plans). Since 2002 it spends c.a. 4-5 Million EUR on the economic and financial education annualy


As there is a good climate for FL initiatives, many private sector programs developed thanks to the financial support from the NBP & the financial market institutions

There is quite a lot of information for financial consumers in the mass media (including reports and analyses of economic journalists) and in the internet

Effective supervision of the financial market for the benefit of financial consumers by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority and Office of Competition and Consumer Protection


The effectiveness of overall FL initiatives is somehow monitored by many public (NBP) and private (mostly big banks) public opinion surveys and academic research

One of the most comprehensive approach is from the Kronenberg Foundation – every year since 2008 it has a survey published in September/October with focus on financial knowledge and behavour of Poles (age 15+)

Overall, there is a little progress in improving financial knowledge of the society every year, but financial decisions of Poles are in most cases quite reasonable (there are still challenges, like e.g. long term savings)

FINANCIAL LITERACY INITIATIVES

Variety of initiatives (in hundreds) since 2002

Various target groups and subjects, various levels (also for professionals)

In long term perspective most of impact on developing of mass media and internet programs (including interactive and multimedia production)

Both grassroots and nationwide coordinated activities

EDUCATION THROUGH MASS MEDIA

EDUCATION PROGRAMS

Most of popular press and many radio media covered (liberal, conservative, independent etc.)

All initiatives addressed to adults, most for working people, but also for seniors & pensioners. Pragmatic approach (discussing real problems)

In the press: usually inserts, as a separate publication or a part of the newspaper (a column). Radio interviews with experts on various aspects of financial literacy

From many research it is clear that consumers learn from mass media at first (and sometimes it is the main source for financial information for them)

EDUCATION THROUGH MASS MEDIA

more at: http://www.nbp.pl/home.aspx?f=/edukacja/dodatki_edukacyjne.html

EDUCATION PROGRAMSTV EDUTAINMENT PROGRAMS

NATIONAL TEST ON ECONOMIC KNOWLEDGE

EDUCATION PROGRAMS

National Test Of Economic Knowledge, first conducted in 2006, then 2012 and 2014 (every 2 years now) – one of the largest initiatives of the NBP

TV show in prime time on the Channel 1 of the TVP (public television) – up to 2 Million viewers (AMR), media stars & politicians, students & consumers involved in solving the test

Winners get serious prizes (nearly 7500 EUR)

Increase of knowledge among participants (6-10%)

TV EDUTAINMENT PROGRAMS

more at: http://wielkitestwiedzyekonomicznej2.tvp.pl/

EDUCATION PROGRAMS

PLEBANIA

HOTEL 52 KLAN

TV SERIES

PIERWSZA MIŁOŚĆ

HOTEL 52

EDUCATION PROGRAMS

NBP started to use Polish TV series as the channel for economic education of the society in 2006. TV series in Poland are most popular TV programs with millions of fans, so that is very good channel to disseminate economic knowledge

The educational message is placed in dialogues between TV series heros, and sometimes a separate story is written to cover some issues. In that way people see that their heros also have similar financial problems and try to solve them. So they learn a lot that way

NBP involved in many most popular Polish series: Klan, Plebania, M jak Miłość, Pierwsza miłość, Hotel 52 etc.

TV SERIES

many episodes become later accessible through internet platforms or mobile apps

EDUCATION PROGRAMSBLOGS

EDUCATION PROGRAMS

There are many bloggers in Poland who write on personal finance issues and share their knowledge and opinions with consumers

One of the most important economic journalist from Gazeta Wyborcza – Maciej Samcik – started to write a blog in 2009. This is now one of the most influential and popular channel of financial knowledge

Results are impressive (2013): over 1600 posts since the beginning, 15,4 Million views, monthly c.a. 350 thousand visits (150 thousand unique users)

Focus only on issues important for financial consumers

BLOGS

EDUCATION PROGRAMSINTERNET WEBSITES & PORTALS

EDUCATION PROGRAMS

National Bank of Poland is NBPortal.pl – the Portal for Economic Education – probably the largest economic education resource worldwide

Very broad approach: e-learning courses, online games, multimedia presentations, scenarios for lessons, articles, economic dictionary = large knowledge base

NBPortal was popular source for economic and financial knowledge – in the peak period there were over 100.000 learners in the e-learning courses and monthly nearly 100.000 internet users visiting portal; over 7 Million unique users till end of 2013.

INTERNET WEBSITES & PORTALS

more at: www.nbportal.pl

EDUCATION PROGRAMSINTERNET MOVIES & VIRALS

EDUCATION PROGRAMS

In order to spread financial knowledge most effective we need to choose internet as a channel for disseminating the message in a popular form: short movies

In years 2009-2012 over 1000 short movies on personal finance issues were produced by students in several internet projects: Nakręcona ekonomia, Tydzień dla oszczędzania, Złotówki bez gotówki.

Great short movies with thousands of views in YouTube. In 90 second students had to present a topic and explain (most did in a funny way) how to take care of financial resources, what is good, and what is risky etc.

INTERNET MOVIES & VIRALS

more at: www.youtube.com & http://millionyou.com/projects/archive/35

FIRST MILLION (PIERWSZY MILION)SIMULATION GAMES

FIRST MILLION (PIERWSZY MILION)

Simulation games help financial consumers to test various consequences in a safe mode of virtual reality

Pierwszy Milion (First Milion) is a simulation game developed by the Kronenberg Foundation by Citibank in Poland, which is used as a tool for learning proper financial behaviour (mainly students at universities). Over 30 thousand players so far.

The role of users is to live, work, save, invest and learn in order to save in the game 1 milion PLN as quick as possible. But a player must take care not only for money but for happiness & education too (personal development). So the money must help to achieve it.

SIMULATION GAMES

more at: http://www.1milion.edu.pl/pl/site.html

EDUCATION PROGRAMSWIKIPEDIA & SOCIAL MEDIA

EDUCATION PROGRAMS

In education Wikipedia is the most important source for information. Same for Polish students. And same when it concerns economic and financial issues (many hundred thousand visits altogether)

In the project Wiki-Ekonomia my company has, in cooperation with NBP, evaluated and improved 300 economic definitions. There were many mistakes or problematic issues in that part of material. The definitions has been sometimes rewritten

Social media must be included in financial literacy, especially where people seek for economic knowledge

WIKIPEDIA & SOCIAL MEDIA

more at: https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Projekty_instytucjonalne/Wiki-Ekonomia

EDUCATION PROGRAMSEDUCATION PROGRAMS IN SCHOOLS

EDUCATION PROGRAMS

In the informal education there were many school programs addressed to students, but the largest one was Tydzień dla oszczędzania (Savings Week), which aim was to focus on financial education in schools in October (31st October – World Savings Day)

In years 2007-2013 students of middle level schools organised and participated in hundreds events focusing on personal finance issues. Nearly 200.000 students participated in special designed lessons and competitions. They have created movies (750), posters, adverts for promoting savings, multimedia presentations, blogs (118 in 2013).

EDUCATION PROGRAMS IN SCHOOLS

more at: http://tdo.edu.pl/

EDUCATION PROGRAMSINTERACTIVE TOOLS FOR LEARNING

EDUCATION PROGRAMS

Consumers and students must have access to good quality open materials where they can learn about personal finance, when they need to. There are plenty of websites which offer online presentations on various topics

Such tools like Lekcja ekonomii and Lekcja oszczędzania were distributed to several thousand schools as a tool to support a teacher in lessons on personal finance

INTERACTIVE TOOLS FOR LEARNING

more at: http://tdo.edu.pl/lekcjeonline/

EDUCATION PROGRAMSEDUCATING KIDS & PARENTS

EDUCATION PROGRAMS

Szkolne Kasy Oszczędności (SKO) is the oldest financial education program in Europe (initiated in 20.ties of 20th centuries). Now it was completely retructured by the largest Polish bank PKO Bank Polski with a mission to educate pupils in primary schools (6-13 years) and their parents on fundamentals of savings

This program is present in over 5000 schools in Poland. An innovation is that in connection with other program PKO Junior, parents can open a bank account for their kids. Once opening account children learn how to plan their finances and save money in the bank (no costs at all). Over 150 thousands accounts were opened till end of 2013.

EDUCATING KIDS & PARENTS

more at: https://sko.pkobp.pl/

EDUCATION PROGRAMSEDUCATING TEACHERS & STUDENTS

MOJE FINANSE

EDUCATION PROGRAMS

Moje Finanse (My Finance) is the largest FL program in Polish schools with the aim to prepare young people (age of 17-19) to manage their personal finances. It is developed by Junior Achievement, NBP and Kronenberg Foundation

15 lessons cycle or 3 one-day interclass workshops (the form at school depends on local situation). Over 970.000 students participated in the program (2004-2013); 13.000 teachers were trained to organize lessons on personal finance

Positive results from evaluation: average increase of knowledge of participants from 5 to 11%

EDUCATING TEACHERS & STUDENTS

more at: http://www.moje-finanse.junior.org.pl/

EDUCATION PROGRAMSEDUCATING STUDENTS BY BANKERS

EDUCATION PROGRAMS

This is a special case – employees from various banks became volunteers in a common initiative of the banker sector and started to teach students in middle level schools on personal finance

A new initiative with 40 volunteers and 25 schools covered in 2013, but it has a great potential if there would be more volunteer-bankers ready to go to schools

The program was very well received by students (90% of positive marks)

EDUCATING STUDENTS BY BANKERS

more at: http://bakcyl.wib.org.pl/

EDUCATION PROGRAMSPUBLIC CAMPAIGNS - ADULTS

EDUCATION PROGRAMS

There were few educational campaigns in Poland, but one was extremely successful and effective: Zanim podpiszesz (Before you sign). It started after a series of unfair market practices which affected budgets of many people

Common initiative of public institutions: NBP, Financial Supervision Authority, Office for Protection of Competition and Consumers, Police, Bank Guarantee Fund, Ministry of Finance & Ministry of Justice

Distribution of materials, leaflets, spots, media programs with a clear message – don't sign any financial contracts if you are not sure. Focus on seniors.

PUBLIC CAMPAIGNS - ADULTS

more at: http://www.zanim-podpiszesz.pl/

EDUCATION PROGRAMSEDUCATING ADULTS

MONAR: ABC OF THE HOME BUDGETS,SAVING AND LENDING

EDUCATION PROGRAMS

MONAR Education Program for people in difficult life circumstances and who may be socially excluded, are homeless, living with AIDS or addicted to alcohol and drugs (since 2011). Support from the NBP.

Training the staff of therapists in basic issues of Home Economics in order to deliver professional advice services and organise workshops for MONAR .

Positive results: over 750 persons in workshops (3 editions). Increase in financial planning month ahead (from 24% up to 70% of partcipants, motivation for saving (from 6,1% to 64%). Aware that as poor and homeless people they need financial education.

EDUCATING ADULTS

more at: http://www.monar.org/

DESIGNING PROGRAMS

Pragmatic approach to personal finance - the Wallet Education - talk about finance as about the money in wallets of the target group

Show all economics in action. Limited theory, practical approach. Show relations between a consumer's wallet and a particular economic mechanism

Use arguments based on a reason and logic (opportunities), don’t afraid to shock by showing possible negative consequences (threats)

Play with education – it can not be boring message. Try edutainment and make people think FL is fun

Photo: sxc.hu

DESIGNING PROGRAMS

Although public institutions engagement is important, explore the social energy in the private sector (including mass media). Build coalitions at national and regional/local levels

Involve media and internet channels to spread economic knowledge - 21st Century learning process is not a text education. It is rather visual and hipertext education

Always build internet platforms where people can find out more information and which would offer useful resources for study

Photo: sxc.hu

DESIGNING PROGRAMS

Develop programs with mass media. They are major actors in the financial literacy of the society in long term perspective

Training: first of all – train the trainers and knowledge disseminators (journalists, teachers, academicians, social leaders)

Develop education programs in various forms (online, offline, training, seminar, workshops, internet channels, media programs etc.) for many social groups. Multiply the message in various channels - reaching target groups from many directions

Photo: sxc.hu

WHAT IS CRUCIAL?

Do marketing. Education without social marketing is less effective. Significant part of the budget should be for marketing and promotion

Networks! People are connected to social networks for most of a day (and night) – it changed the way we as people learn today. Build and use it (in the internet too)

Repeat the same message again and again (learning curve). Multiply it in different tools and programs

No economic jargon – clear message to ordinary financial consumers

SUMMING UP

Improving financial literacy of the society is not a linear process with a standard set of tools

We need not only to begin financial education at schools, but to strenghten and develop financial knowledge of adults – parents, employees, seniors. Families (and friends) are important source for financial information and in many case home is the place where young people learn most on personal finance

It seems to me, that to reach adults the most effective way is through mass media and internet. People need easy, at one click, access to financial education resources, and we need to develop it at first

www.economiceducator.eu

THANK YOU!

Financial Literacy is a life skill and helps to avoid various mines... :-)

Marcin PolakFuturedu & Think! Foundation

Warsaw, Polandmarcin.polak [at] futuredu.pl

Marcin Polak

Marcin Polak was the Head of the Economic Education in the National Bank of Poland (2002-2007), being responsible for strategic planning and implementation of the nationwide and international economic education and financial literacy projects. These initiatives were addressed, among others, to schools, libraries, students, teachers, journalists, priests, judges, as well as, through the mass media, to general public opinion.

He is involved in the cooperation with Russian institutions implementing Financial Education and Financial Literacy Program since its launching. He was involved in preparing the concept for the Regional Financial Education Center in Kaliningrad.

Since 2008 President of the Board of the Think Global Ltd., founder of the Think! Foundation, owner and publisher of the Edunews.pl - one of the largest educational web sites in Poland (>715 thousand users) promoting modern education programs and tools for the education sector as well as EconomicEducator.eu - international platform for economic and financial educators and experts. He was a member of the European Commission Expert Group on the Financial Education.