This article is part of the FT’s financial literacy and inclusion campaign, a joint seasonal appeal with Magic Breakfast.
Children run around banks, cafes, supermarkets, TV stations, city hall, etc. Farmers passed by on tractors carrying crops for sale, and photographers nearby made money in their studios.
This is a fictional story that takes place in a warehouse on the outskirts of Finland’s capital, Helsinki, rather than in a real town. Dozens of sixth graders, 12 and 13 year olds are taking part in Yrityskylä, a national network of business villages aimed at improving financial literacy.
91% of Finnish students take part in a 10-lesson program where they learn how business, the economy, and society work and how to apply for jobs. Finally, they are released for a day in the business village, put on work clothes, practice teamwork, buy drinks and food with the money they earn, and even do what if they overspend and need to make some emergency cash. Find out if this happens.
“It was a lot of fun,” recalls Tyka Smith, now a 17-year-old economics student. “That was the first moment I knew I wanted to do something in business. I really enjoyed talking to people and doing calculations related to economics.”
Finland aims to achieve the highest financial literacy in the world by 2030, and projects such as Yrityskylä are making a significant contribution to this progress. Already in 2018, Finland ranked second (after Estonia) in the OECD’s Pisa ranking for financial literacy in schools.
The Financial Times launched its Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign in 2021 to deliver free, engaging content to young people across the UK and democratize education about money and finance. This year’s seasonal charity appeal supports both FLIC and Magic Breakfast, a UK charity that provides the first meal of the day to over 200,000 young people a day.
Finland has long taken seriously the importance of financial literacy and quality school meals, so it seemed like a natural place to look for inspiration about what’s possible.
“Finland’s goal with regard to financial literacy is to enable people to make sustainable and value-creating financial decisions,” said Simo Karvinen, a teacher at Rautasaari International Business High School in Helsinki. “These decisions are made in a variety of roles: individuals, households, businesses, or just about every activity within society. So what matters is how we manage our own financial well-being and capital. It’s not just that.
Anu Raihas, financial literacy advisor at the Museum of the Central Bank of Finland, who led the development of the national strategy on financial education, said the Nordic countries still have work to do, especially for women and young people with low levels of education. He said there was.
But she added that Finnish schools do a good job of preparing students for working life through economics lessons in subjects such as social studies, home economics and mathematics. “What’s important on a societal level is that financial literacy makes people equal. So they’re on the same footing in terms of being active citizens,” she said.
This is also evident in Ilitskira, where children can not only vote in city hall meetings, but also work in their respective businesses and act as consumers.
“To prevent social exclusion, all children and young people across Finland need the opportunity to learn and practice these skills, whether in economic skills, working life, entrepreneurship, or as members of society. It is very important to have this,” said director Kaisa Koistinen. At Junior Achievement Finland, the non-profit educational organization that runs Yrityskylä.
She added that in addition to more theoretical lessons, it is important to “learn by doing,” or learning through gamification.
This is evident at the secondary and high school in Salo, a town 110 km west of Helsinki. Salo is known for being home to Nokia’s large mobile phone factory, which is currently closed. A class of 17- to 18-year-olds is playing a game that simulates running a hotel. They receive specific information (for example, information that international travel has stopped due to the epidemic, but domestic demand is increasing), and in order to compete with each other to acquire customers, they will be asked to change accommodation rates, staffing levels, and marketing. Expenses need to be set.
“I’m trying to make money. I don’t really care about my employees,” one boy quipped before teacher Otso Karufumaki and another student won that round. He said. They priced their rooms lower than their competitors, so they sold twice as many. The whiteboard immediately shows each team’s revenue, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization), net income, and total shareholder return. It’s part of an accounting class primarily for business students, who soon begin scrutinizing the annual financial statements of local companies.
“Yes, it’s complicated, but it’s also interesting. It will be useful in the future when I start my own company,” said Vilma Vainio, one of the students. She added: “At this age, we know a lot about money because of school, so we can make good choices.”
Downstairs, in the main hall of a modern building built during the Nokia boom, a modest breakfast of hot drinks, fruit and bread is served. The previous year, the school served a heartier breakfast with porridge each day, and both students and teachers noticed the difference.
“They talked more. They were more active,” Joa Landen, 18, said of her fellow students. Teacher Melita Suikanen added that the staff hopes that the municipality will reinstate the offer: “The students were very active in the lessons, so we hope that it will be resumed.” spoke.
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We support the financial literacy and inclusion campaign’s joint seasonal appeal with Magic Breakfast
The school still serves a generous lunch, which is free for all students. It was a popular offer, and Lunden said she appreciated it even more after swapping with a school in Spain where the food was worse.
Back in the classroom, students describe how their studies sparked an interest in entrepreneurship, one of the big hopes for financial literacy education. 17-year-olds Ilmari Sanaksenaho and Teemu Lahtinen started a construction business and built a sauna and trash can shed through Facebook.
A group of six girls explains how they brought young people to a local music festival and won a local “hackathon” thanks to a fashion show and rappers. Their campaign was so successful that they want to make it an annual tradition. “We learned a lot of practical things that we need,” said Emi Koivumaki, one of the female students in her final year before entering university. Another Emilia Markov added: “The most important thing is to learn how to communicate with other people. It’s not just sitting at a desk.”
Financial literacy is taught through various subjects in the Finnish system. At Rauttasaari High School, which also has a school dog, social studies classes for 14- and 15-year-olds focus on changes in the workforce over the past 100 years, as Finland transitioned from an agricultural to an urban society. The children shyly talk about what their grandparents did. As with Salo’s classes, there is a spirit of cooperation between students and teachers, rather than one-sided dictation or rote learning. And the social studies curriculum goes beyond economics to include democracy and how Finnish society functions.
“It helps us learn about the environment we live in. It prepares us for life as an adult,” said 14-year-old Fine Saarlund. Her classmate Nessa Dyfy, 15, added: “I used to go to school in America, and we didn’t learn much about this kind of thing.”
