Press release about project ending in Romania: Ziarul de Iași, newspaper link (click here).
The FINGO project's Multiplication Events took place in September and October of 2023 in each country, getting closer to the end of the project. The planned number of participants was exceeded, being over 300, and the feedback was more than positive.
The content materials produced, the games and practical activities suggested, have a strong supportive role in helping to learn basic concepts of Financial Literacy / Entrepreneurship by any student and can be used in various educational contexts by different teachers of Economics, Entrepreneurship, support, English or national language; guidance personnel; school psychologists/counselors and so on.
All of the four results have been checked by the very diverse participants and are free to be used as needed by anyone interested.
On 3rd and 4th of July 2023, the fourth meeting of the Erasmus+ FINGO project took place, hosted by the partner IST ONLUS, Torino, Italy. The management meeting subject discussed according to the agenda:
Many of us or of the students graduating a school think about how it would be to create a start-up. But, how to do it? Is it difficult?
21.02.2023
1.The PR4 work is in schedule. Share of own work ideas for PR4, examples
2.Partners expressed opinions and we got to the conclusion that each partner will express his own way of working but following the template provided, as established before, so we have a coherent final doc.
3.All partners shared a little of their plan of working on the product.
4.We will pay attention to explain the activities we include as part of PR4, like what the trainer is doing, what the students are doing. Just to be clear for anyone who want to put it in practice.
The material should be easy to understand for someone who reads it for the first time and then for the students including those with disabilities.
5.Focus on practical activities, roll-playing, collect pictures and short videos of important steps worked with the students in order to create later the virtual exhibition.
Transnational project meeting Reus-Spain
On 19th and 20th of January 2023, the third meeting of the Erasmus+ FINGO project took place, hosted by the partner Dom Spain, from Reus, Spain. The management meeting involved the presentation of the general situation of the project, clarifications for the product PR3, "Collection of stories of successful personal financial management for students with special needs", planning the realization of the product PR4 "I am a financially successful person - guidelines, workshops and exhibition ", setting deadlines for products, setting the Turin meeting period in July, the last TPM of the project, checks on evaluation documents, dissemination and management. Thanks to the hosts and partners for their efficiency and preparation of the meeting.
Local piloting activities of curriculum content
The local piloting of the seven modules within the final product "Financial literacy skills using games" took place in September and October 2022 being organized by all partners. The content of the elaborated curriculum is thus tested locally in practical activity.
The exercises carried out had a playful and visual character. The face-to-face, self-directed, and evaluation sections were considered. The local piloting activities follow the international teaching-learning-training activity C1 carried out between 6-8.09.2022 in Nicosia, Cyprus.
The observations collected during the two piloting sessions are considered to improve the final form of the curriculum that will be available in English and the national languages of each partner.
Between 20-23.09.2022 at ”Vasile Pavelcu” Special Technological High School, Iași, Romania
October at DomSpain, Reus, Spain
October, Istituto dei Sordi di Torino, Italy
October, TKND, Lithuania
October, Konya İL MİLLİ EĞİTİM MÜDÜRLÜĞÜ , Turkey
October, Demetrius, Iași, Romania
October, CIP, Nicosia, Cyprus
Opinions About the Financial Education Curriculum Content
Considering its importance, financial literacy education should be accessible, further more, it should be accessible for special needs students including hearing disabilities.
What should financial literacy curriculum content look like?
Opinions of various experts (bank employees, representant of the deaf, teachers of finance/economics and other specialties, psychologists, teachers of the deaf and other disabilities, guidance teachers, and other university-level professors):
„practical activities, concrete (real) examples, visual materials”
“the innovative element is the accessibility for the deaf”
“important (is) to make all the modules as accessible as possible, especially for deaf students”
„tasks and instructions should be in sign language”
„the modules can be used after the project (ending)
and that it is transferable to another educational context”
„interactive activities”
„to have invited known entrepreneurs”
„simplicity, clear definition of terms, attractive activities using new platforms”
Students think the most effective methods to be used to teach them the subject are:
These methods are useful to teach all students.
We consider all these opinions working on our curriculum content as part of "Cross-curricular collaboration for improving students’ financial literacy skills using games”- FINGO, Erasmus+project.
Kick-off meeting Iasi, Romania
Between February 3-4, 2022, at the
"Vasile Pavelcu" Special Technological High School in Iasi, the first
planned meeting of the project took place, aimed at establishing the essential
milestones for the realization of the first two products of the project,
"Development of financial skills using games in special schools" –
curriculum development that is also accessible to students with disabilities
(including hearing disabled) and development of course materials including a
piloting phase. Also, in accordance with the project data and the stages
established in the online management meeting on 05.01.2022,
the progress of the project was analyzed and the deadlines for various
activities were recalculated, as well as the dates of the next project
meetings.
Starting with 01.11.2021, for a period
of 2 years, the project "Cross-curricular collaboration for improving
students’ financial literacy skills using games" – FINGO within the
Erasmus+ Program, Strategic Partnerships for School Education, was launched and
will be implemented together with partners from Lithuania, Spain, Italy,
Romania, Cyprus, and Turkey.
The project aims to improve the
financial knowledge and skills necessary to strengthen the social inclusion of
pupils with special needs (focusing on hearing disabled) and those in the risk
category of social exclusion by improving inter-curricular and
interdisciplinary collaboration in the educational process and by promoting
experimental teaching methods and tools, based on play and social simulation.