Financial literacy
The need to make sound financial decisions is shown by statistics highlighting the fact that many individuals and households experience financial difficulties, with the current global economic situation worsening their situation.
To counteract these developments financial literacy is needed.
Financial literacy
Even though it is never too late, the greatest impact is obtained when financial literacy skills are developed from an early age to support healthy decisions over a lifespan. But what exactly is financial literacy? Financial literacy is defined by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) as a combination of financial awareness, knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors necessary to make sound financial decisions and ultimately achieve individual financial well-being.
As a signatory of the UN Principles for Responsible Banking, we work responsibly with our clients and our customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable economic activities that create shared prosperity for current and future generations.
Financial literacy is of highest importance for RBI, since
- The financial literacy scores in the markets in which we operate are diverse and need to be generally improved.
- Programs in the areas of financial education are needed, as many users of financial products lack financial literacy competencies.
- Financial literacy is one of the things that will encompass just about every aspect of a person’s life.
- Our mission is to constantly strive to improve customer experience and enable our clients to achieve more in their lives and businesses.
Financial education with minecraft
Learning about the fundamentals of money, good financial habits and other vital financial topics is one of the most important skills that a young teenager can acquire. However, there is only little interest. Therefore, RBI continuously strives to improve the way financial education is taught. Over the last months, RBI has been developing an interactive and engaging way of teaching critical financial aspects and terms to young students, using the Minecraft Education Edition.
With the Minecraft game “My Finance Quests” a new chapter within RBI’s financial education initiatives has begun, as it combines valuable information and great entertainment at the same time and thus is able to attract the attention of its users.
The focus of the game lies on 3 main topics: How a Bank works, Saving & Budgeting and Online Security. Each topic features its own level, with a respective storyline, with unique game mechanics, NPC interactions (NPC Interactions is a feature allowing users to set up dialog and chat with Non-Player Characters.) and engaging quests. This means that each main topic will act as its own “minigame”, that is designed to be played during one school session.
Each topic differs in content heavily and different storylines, quests, and other ways are used as well to deepen the understanding for the information provided for the students. Moreover, the game is set in a chronological order starting from the 19th century. Therefore, the first “minigame” takes place in the late 1800s, the second in the 20th century and the last one in current times.
Why minecraft?
Minecraft is well known at nearly all ages and hundred of schools already use the Education Edition of Minecraft to teach for example geology or art. Furthermore, it is easy to get.
By using a gamified experience instead of traditional educational lessons, we at RBI hope to better interact and engage with Gen Z and Gen Alpha, respectively. We strongly believe that with RBI’s offer of a unique and interacting way of learning more complex topics through gaming, we will have a higher chance of improving the students’ financial literacy. In fact, our last feedback sessions with high-school students in Austria and Slovakia support this idea.
How do schools use the game?
Our goal is to provide schools with the ability to host an interactive and engaging session for kids between the ages of 10 and 15. That is why each “minigame” is designed to have the playtime of approximately 30-40 minutes, enough for one teaching lessons.
Since the game is designed to be played in classrooms, it does not offer a full “self-learning” experience. Rather, the game requires a teacher or a presenter to moderate the players, give hints and further explain some game concepts. It is supposed to be an interactive session, where the players are guided through each level.
Anyone with an already existing Microsoft Office 365 account only needs to log in into Minecraft Education Edition and can directly play our game “My Finance Quests”. If you don’t have an Office 365 account or need a license to be able to play the game, please don’t hesitate to contact us under juergen.schiefer@rbinternational.com or on the telephone, (01) 717 07-3345. For further information about retail climate and environmental strategy please kindly reach out to Nikoletta Kovacs, nikoletta.kovacs@rbinternational.com.
