This took place as part of the "Courage to Be" project, which is implemented by the Kredo Bank's corporate charity foundation – the "Kredo Foundation" in collaboration with the Lviv Education Department and the Center for Professional Development of Educators. The aim of the project is to initially promote financial literacy among teacher ambassadors and subsequently encourage entrepreneurship and leadership among the youth.
“This competition is designed so that teachers, while teaching this subject in their schools, have the opportunity to practice and gain additional skills. The main elements targeted by this project are development, the ability to communicate, collaborate in teams, think creatively, and critically approach various topics. Therefore, if teachers are to teach this to students, they must first practice it themselves,” noted Solomiya Hovoruha, head of the Charitable Foundation “Kredo Foundation.”
A total of 43 schools from the Lviv community participated in the "Kredo Foundation" project. Educators and students learned to set goals and achieve them, save money, present themselves, and engage with successful entrepreneurs. Training sessions were also organized for parents.
“We realized that there was no financial literacy in our school. And it is very important for children to have this information. So, together with a new, young teacher, we decided to dive into this program. The program is incredibly rich; every week, the teacher conducts lessons for the eighth-grade parallel, and these lessons are very meaningful,” shared Tetiana Yartym, director of Lviv Secondary School No. 1.
All participating teachers in the competition received eco-friendly pencils with seeds. Meanwhile, the top educators in financial literacy were gifted five laptops and three modern tablets, among them was Iryna Steciv, a teacher from Lviv School No. 97. She has been participating in the "Courage to Be" project for the second consecutive year.
“The project has revealed my potential and that of the children: what we can do, what we are capable of. There are constant competitions – we are being creative, saving as a whole school,” said Iryna Steciv, a geography and financial literacy teacher at School No. 97.
The methodological framework developed within the "Courage to Be" project will allow for scaling knowledge across all schools in Lviv. The Kredo Foundation plans to continue improving the financial literacy of students in the future.