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Financial Literacy

Sound financial decisions are key for the improved welfare of individuals and society alike. Statistics prove that many households are struggling with financial difficulties — especially in the current global economic situation.
Financial literacy is the most effective skill to counteract these developments.

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

RBCZ Minecraft

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.

Download My Finance Quests
Download Teacher's Handbook

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 nikoletta.kovacs@rbinternational.com. Nikoletta Kovacs, Leader of Retail ESG business development.

Selected Financial Education Initiatives From Our Network

World Phenomena Money

World Phenomena Money was developed for primary school children on the basis of BBC educational videos. When creating it, the authors followed the National Standard for Financial Literacy 1.2.

World Phenomena Money

As per the national curriculum, the interdisciplinary topic of financial literacy requires to be taught at every level of education in Slovakia. Therefore, Tatra banka, a.s., developed in its long-standing partnership with the non-profit education organization Edulab high-quality teaching material.

World Phenomena Money

“World Phenomena Money” was developed for primary school children on the basis of BBC educational videos. When creating the “World Phenomena Money”, the authors followed the National Standard for Financial Literacy 1.2. The aim was to provide teachers with attractive materials that they can use to familiarize pupils with this complex topic. Pupils will improve in solving word problems, calculating percentages, interpreting data, or working with statistical files. To make the content appealing to pupils, the high-quality videos are used in combination with various activities and interactive exercises. This enables them to learn critical thinking, joined-up thinking, reading comprehension, and teamwork.

As the partner for the “Money” module, Tatra banka gives pupils the opportunity to expand their financial knowledge through high-quality video content in order to improve their skills in this specific area. The module answers elementary questions about money, what it is for and how it affects our everyday lives.

Fenomeny sveta website

Online Education Platform Zlatka.in

Zlatka.in meets the standards for financial literacy and can be officially used in school lessons, as it has been included in the national register of financial education projects by the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic.

Online education platform “Zlatka.in”

In the Czech Republic financial literacy is based on the National Strategy for Financial Education. This Strategy wants to create a financial education system that aims to increase the level of financial literacy in the Czech Republic. Since 2017, Raiffeisenbank a.s. in the Czech Republic has funded the development of the online education platform “Zlatka.in”, which is available free of charge to schoolchildren and teachers and in the meantime available in English and Slovakian. ”Zlatka.In“ meets the standards for financial literacy and can be officially used in school lessons as it has been included in the national register of financial education projects by the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic.

Online education platform “Zlatka.in”

Equipped with the necessary know-how on the topics of money, finance and financial planning, teachers use the online tool to playfully impart financial knowledge. The platform tailors the tasks to the level of knowledge of the individual pupil. Seeing rising visitor numbers each year, the website was expanded to include a module enabling secondary schools to use it in addition to the existing target audience of primary school pupils, parents and teachers in 2020. The new module gives pupils the opportunity to try out roles that they might want to take on in real life, e.g. entrepreneur.

As well as teaching financial literacy through play, the website promotes a humanistic mindset. Since fall 2019, once a year a special campaign is run under which children earn virtual ”coins“ by solving tasks. By letting them choose whether to collect their “coins” in exchange for items or donate their “earnings”, children are able to have an impact as Raiffeisenbank converts their “earnings” into “real” money and donates it to the organizations selected by the children.

Zlatka.in website

Material for Albania's Schools

In Albanian schools, financial education is also on the agenda — with the two projects Financial Education In The Digital Age and Know Your Money, which are supported by Albania Raiffeisen Invest.

“Financial Education in the digital age”, “Know your money”, "Apply electronic payment"

In Albania's schools, financial education is also on the agenda, with the two projects "Financial Education in the digital age" and "Know your money" supported by Albania Raiffeisen Invest.

Financial Education Albania

"Financial Education in the Digital Age" focused on 5 training sessions aimed at educating and orienting young people for digital financial services, strengthening their trust and expanding their knowledge of information security issues of these services. The training, attended by more than 200 students from Tirana, focused on changing the mentality of cash avoidance and using innovative solutions such as contactless cards and mobile applications to conduct banking transactions, while also informing them about the risks and vulnerabilities of banking devices and applications.

The project "Know Your Money", which is implemented by the Institute for Sustainable Policy, aims to inform high school students from Tirana about financial education and also to show the students what advantages this entails. 

But also the further education of the rest of the population of Albania should not be neglected, which is why Albania Raiffeisen Invest also supports the project "Apply electronic payment":

The project aims to raise awareness of electronic payments and was implemented by the ABC Tirana Club in collaboration with the Faculty of Economics of the University of Tirana, which is already the third edition of the program for economic and financial education of the public. Among other things, it is intended to encourage people to inform themselves about electronic payment and ultimately to show the positive effects this has on daily life and to stimulate a general discussion in Albania that there is also more investment in information and education campaigns on this topic.
RBCZ Minecraft

Minecraft Raiffeisenbank Czech Republic

Raiffeisenbank has just launched an innovative project to support financial education and cyber security in the Minecraft Education environment! This makes Raiffeisenbank the first Czech bank to enable children to learn about the world of finance in this fun and modern way. 

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.

Financial Literacy and Minecraft? Absolutely!

At Raiffeisenbank we are launching a brand-new project to support education in financial literacy and cybersecurity within the Minecraft Education environment! We are the first Czech bank to enable children to absorb information from the financial world in a fun and modern way. Everything is in Czech. This is a localization of the RBI group solution, which has already received several awards in Austria.

RBCZ Minecraft

Managing money, acquiring healthy financial habits, and cybersecurity are some of the most crucial skills for children and teenagers that play a key role in their adult lives. To foster children's interest in these topics, we at Raiffeisenbank continuously strive to improve the ways we teach financial skills in the most entertaining and effective manner. Therefore, we are introducing a game in the Minecraft Education environment that teaches children important principles of financial literacy and cybersecurity in an interactive way.

The game "My Financial Adventure" combines fun and learning, presenting an effective way to increase financial literacy among children aged 8 to 15. The game is designed as a series of four interconnected stories/minigames that can be played during a school lesson. Each story has its own game mechanics and interactive tasks that deepen the understanding of the given topic.

  • Game 1: Learning about interest rates and how a bank works
  • Game 2: Understanding budgeting and saving
  • Game 3: Learning about internet safety (phishing, online scams, setting a secure password)
  • Game 4: Understanding the value of money and how to manage it

Why minecraft?

Minecraft is extremely popular among children across various age groups (with over 160 million active users worldwide each month), and many schools already use it to teach different subjects – such as physics, chemistry, etc. It is a unique and interactive way for students to learn complex topics in a fun manner – fully in the spirit of learning through play.

Who is the game for?

Our goal is to provide schools with the opportunity to conduct interactive and fun lessons for children aged 8 to 15. Each minigame lasts approximately 30-40 minutes, which is a sufficient length for one lesson. The game Minecraft – My Financial Adventure is specially designed as a group activity, suitable for classroom teaching where the teacher acts as a moderator and guide, helping players, providing hints, and giving context to the entire game. However, the game can also be played individually at home.

How to start the game?

To start the game, you need to install the Minecraft Education Edition application on the device you are using (supported platforms are Windows, Mac computers, iPads, Chromebooks, and mobile devices). Then open the Czech version of Minecraft and log in using your email and password. An Office 365 license for Minecraft is required to log in.

Minecraft is a great way for children to learn the basics of financial literacy in a fun and adventurous way. Through interacting with game characters and completing tasks, the game allows understanding the principles of interest, budgeting, and cybersecurity.

Veronika Nováčková, Sustainability Specialist

Our interactive financial literacy game enables children to learn about finance in an engaging and accessible way. Several banks from the RBI group have already adopted the game and translated it into local languages. This initiative not only supports our business strategy in the area of climate and ESG (social pillar) but also aligns with our ambitions in digital retail and emphasizes the importance of financial literacy as a priority for the entire group.

Nikoletta Kovacs, Retail ESG Business Development Lead RBI

A truly fun and modern form of teaching financial literacy. Moreover, Minecraft perfectly fulfills our vision of being a digital leader (including in the education of potential clients). Many thanks to everyone involved in the implementation and translation; we managed to complete it, including testing, in just three months!

Michal Putna, Sustainability Officer
Škola hrou: Minecraft

Accessibility

Our Approach to Accessibility

We are committed to providing accessible digital and physical services for everyone. This includes:

  • The elimination of barriers online and in physical spaces.
  • The promotion of an inclusive culture through easy access to resources, support, and services.
  • The empowerment of every individual in their financial journey — regardless of disabilities.

Contact Us About Financial Literacy

Send us your questions and suggestions to sponsoring@rbinternational.com.