11Onze, the Barcelona-based community fintech, has carved a place for itself in Europe as the leading provider of financial literacy to its community by signing up 52 schools in Catalonia for its 11Onze Schools initiative.
“Our mission is to engage and educate young students to improve their financial literacy by teaching them how money works and the technology behind it,” explained 11Onze Chairman James Séne.
“We understand that without basic financial education, children and young adults will face immense difficulties to manage their finances effectively. This could lead to bad credit, bankruptcy and lack of savings.”
According to a Greenlight study, nearly three-quarters of teens (74%) reported that they don’t feel confident in their personal finance knowledge. About the same percentage of teens (73%) said they wanted to learn more.
“When a school requests a free class with us, they can choose whether they want it to be virtual or face-to-face. In both cases, a representative of 11Onze will offer them a 1-hour class. Right now, we offer three types of classes: Introduction to Financial Education; Open Banking; Digital Currencies,” explained Toni Mata, Director of Content and Media, 11Onze.
11Onze has undertaken trial classes at the Arraona Institute in Sabadell and Cendrassos in Figueres. “We have had conversations with Escoles Pies i Cic-Thau. We are now entering the phase of scheduling classes for these schools and for the 10,000 public schools that can request a session, added Mata.
The 11Onze School idea was suggested by 11Onze’s La Plaça members, revealed Séne. “Impressed with the information being shared on La Plaça, a high school teacher asked us if we could offer a financial education session to his students. We decided to take it a step further, offer financial literacy sessions, and appoint 11Onze ambassadors in schools who will keep the financial literacy campaign going.”
“We cover topics including credit cards, crypto, and money management. For young people, digital banking is no longer a mystery, although they don’t know much about all the processes behind it. As almost all of them have financial applications on their mobile phones, they are keen on financial education,” Sène added.
Joan Medard Oriol Barris, professor, Institut Cendrassos de Figueres said, “We were delighted to have 11Onze offer this financial literacy session. It was quite popular. It expanded on the subject that I teach and covered key technologies used in financial institutions, financial instruments, payment and collection systems… topics that you don’t get to learn in your day-to-day life.”
“In the current environment, where we have to rely on ourselves to make important decisions such as which credit cards, mortgage offers or savings instruments to pick, the responsibility to educate oneself is paramount – both individually and collectively,” explained added Séne.
