Conducting financial literacy courses in secondary schools of Transcarpathia

In 2022, the Ferenc Rakotsi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College of Higher Education (FR II THCHE) has started a mission to train students of secondary schools in Transcarpathia with the aim of mastering basic financial, economic and entrepreneurial skills. It is well known that the population of our region is not sufficiently financially literate, which has a historical and social basis. In today’s conditions, knowing, understanding and learning adaptation to financial processes is vital for everyone. These processes penetrate more and more deeply into our everyday life and should be mastered at a young age. The initiative of the Accounting and Auditing Department from the FR II THCHE was supported by the Pallas Athéné Domus Meriti (PADME) Fund of the National Bank of Hungary. The program was implemented in the fall under the name “Financial and entrepreneurial awareness training for high school students of secondary schools”.

According to the plan, the teachers of the Institute prepared a unique system of educational programs, which was accompanied by a workbook, souvenirs and other visual materials. The courses were presented in six general educational institutions of Transcarpathia for students of grades 10-11 with the involvement of young people (about 300 people).

The program presented 3+1 topics to graduates who intend to continue their studies or start a career, namely:

  1. An auxiliary course in economics, which outlines its basics.
  2. A financial course about the purpose of money, how to use it wisely, in particular, about the reasons for managing a family or individual budget.
  3. Professional course on introducing the entrepreneurship model for young people.

The program was interactive, as it was possible to search for letters of expressions of financial and economic content, to find proverbs of economic content. The most skilled students were granted with gifts.

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The series of programs began in October 2022 in the city of Berehovo, at the Gabor Bethlen and Lajos Kossuth lyceums. Later, in the Roman Catholic Lyceum of St. Istvan in Mukachevo, in the Reformed Lyceum in the village of Big Goodness. In addition, there was an opportunity to hold a program at the Sandor Stoyka Greek Catholic Lyceum in the village of Karachin and at the Lyceum named after Aran Yanosh of the village Kosino.

The series of programs was presented each time by Prof. Bacho Robert, the head of the Accounting and Auditing Department, Doctor of Sciences in Economics, who focused attention on the purpose of economic activity. PhD Gabriella Loskorich, the Deputy Head of the Accounting and Auditing Department, and Oksana Perchi, a teacher of the department, gave their useful advices on issues related to the budget. Shebeshten Edina, who is both a teacher and a private entrepreneur, shared her experience regarding the possibility of choosing an entrepreneurship model, and a teacher Gabor Pataky developed the program of the event. The Association of Young Hungarian Entrepreneurs of Transcarpathia, represented by the Vice-president Husar Andreja, provided professional support for the event. During the final part of the program, the students received information about the possibilities of continuing their studies at the Institute in the specialties of economic profile. In this way, young people will be able to develop their life path, which will be based on the financial and economic knowledge of young people, and through the acquisition of appropriate economic education and experience will be able to lead them to successful business activity.

We are glad that in such a difficult time for all of us, we managed to implement a unique program on the territory of Transcarpathia, which we plan to expand in the future with the involvement of other educational institutions.

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We express our sincere thanks to the PADME Foundation of the National Bank of Hungary for supporting our initiative, to the management of the Transcarpathian Hungarian Institute and the Transcarpathian Association of Young Hungarian Entrepreneurs for their professional assistance, as well as to the management of all the above-mentioned educational institutions for providing the opportunity to hold these educational events.

Staff of the Accounting and Auditing Department

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