Reader’s Opinion | Financial skills are already taught in schools

Nicholas Poole pondered (HS Opinion 22.9.)why financial skills are not taught in schools, and how important financial skills are in terms of building one’s own future.

I agree with the importance of teaching financial skills. However, teaching financial skills is already part of, for example, the elementary school curriculum, even though there is no such subject in schools.

Schools also receive support for teaching financial skills from many actors in society. Youth entrepreneurship and economy NOW organizes Business Village activities for 6th graders and 9th graders. More than 90 percent of all students already participate in Yrityskylä learning entities and environments every year. The Taloussankari package and the Investor School also offer schools content for teaching economics. Banks in different regions also actively offer financial lessons to schools.

According to the 2018 Pisa economic study, the financial skills of Finnish youth are the second best in the world – after Estonia. However, this does not mean that there is no need to increase the teaching of financial skills.

The digital environment challenges young people and also us adults in different ways than where money management was practiced 20 years ago. For example, advertising on social media can make a young person feel that they need things they don’t really need. Cash is also disappearing, which can make it harder to figure out spending. It is also important that you learn about finances when a question related to finances is relevant in your own life.

Finland’s national financial skills strategy aims for Finns to have the best financial skills in the world by 2030. In addition to schools, a large number of actors from various government, financial sector and organizations are promoting this goal.

Jenni Järvelä

managing director

Youth entrepreneurship and the economy NOW

The reader’s opinions are speeches written by HS readers, selected and edited by the HS editorial staff. You can leave an opinion piece or familiarize yourself with the principles of the pieces at www.hs.fi/kiryotamielipidekeisuis/.