The caches are intended to convey income-expenditure planning, basic knowledge about loans, but also the assessment of financial risks. The initiative of the Education Directorate is supported by the University of Economics, where a tailor-made concept for the lessons was developed. The coaches can be deployed at all Viennese schools, regardless of whether they are in the lower school or the upper school.
Coach can be requested from WU
Middle schools, AHS and BMHS (vocational middle and higher schools) can request a financial education coach via the Institute for Business Education, who will develop and implement a tailor-made, quality-tested teaching concept for the class.
The financial driving license was also highlighted, with which more than 2,200 students from vocational schools and polytechnic schools have received practical basic financial education since February 2020. “Financial competence supports young people in leading a self-determined life – with fewer money worries and greater ability to make decisions,” said Education Director Heinrich Himmer.
Free offers on online platform
The financial coaches are intended to supplement existing free offers. On the online platform The Vienna Department of Education currently offers 30 tested offers from cooperation partners such as MoneyMatters, Moneywise, WU4Juniors, the National Bank’s Euro Kids Tour or the financial driver’s license from the Vienna Debt Advisory Service. New ones are constantly being added, it was said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Business educators criticize new curricula
Financial education and the basics of economics are also to be part of the curriculum from next year. New curricula are currently being developed, but business educators are now criticizing the draft as “lacking substance” and poor content.
In the draft, the “efforts to network the learning areas of business, society and politics, to work towards the key objective of maturity and in particular to anchor the idea of sustainability in young people, are clearly recognizable”, write the scientists from the Universities of Vienna, Graz, Innsbruck, Linz and the University of Economics (WU). “In its business-related parts, however, the draft curriculum is surprisingly insubstantial.”
Currently under review
The new curricula for all subjects in elementary school, middle school and the lower grades of AHS are currently being assessed. They have been in development since 2018 and are to apply from 2023/24. Technically, they are ordinances issued by the relevant Minister of Education. Among them is the one for “Geography and Economic Education” (currently “Geography and Economics”) in middle school/AHS lower grades (there is no separate subject in elementary school, note).