Finco aims to build money skills among primary pupils in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: The Financial Industry Collective Outreach (Finco) flagship financial literacy programme aims to build money skills among primary pupils with Malaysia’s first Social Entrepreneur Network for Schools – Good SENS.

More than 200 upper primary pupils from 20 schools across Johor, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan are getting ready to sharpen their financial literacy skills to raise funds to address causes they care about.

With a packed schedule of enterprise meetings with financial industry leaders and international counterparts, these budding social entrepreneurs are the pioneers of Malaysia’s first Social Enterprise Network for Schools – Good SENS.

The newly launched Good SENS is the flagship financial literacy programme of the Finco – a collaboration between more than 100 financial institutions in Malaysia with the guidance of Bank Negara Malaysia.

Aligned to the strategic goals of the Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE), the carefully curated modules are also mapped to MOE’s financial literacy curriculum, and offer young people the opportunity to learn related concepts through application in real-life situations as well as acquire the skills and knowledge needed to make responsible financial decisions – and have fun while doing it.

Good SENS is facilitated by Social Enterprise Academy (SEA) Malaysia, with delivery support from Bank Negara Malaysia and financial industry members such as AmBank, RHB, Prudential Assurance, HSBC Bank, Manulife Insurance, OCBC Bank and Maybank who have collectively committed computers, financial literacy resources and 42 volunteers throughout the yearlong programme. Infrastructure solution provider OMNIX also provided stable internet accessibility for those schools who require it.

Representing the financial industry at the recent virtual launch ceremony, Finco chairman Tan Sri Azman Hashim said that the theme of social enterprise was apt for inculcating financial literacy. He added, “If you consider the core skills needed by social entrepreneurs, you’ll recognise that money matters is key if they are to survive long enough to achieve their social mission. As such, Good SENS is designed to address the low levels of financial literacy or poor financial behaviours that exists amongst many Malaysians – which leads to high levels of debt and bankruptcy, especially amongst youth. It is therefore vital to the inclusive growth of Malaysia’s economy that our young people are provided with the financial education and tools they need to become financially resilient as soon as possible.”

Explaining how the programme works, Finco CEO Clare Walker said each participant’s journey will take them through an immersive social enterprise and financial literacy training, including budgeting, business planning and determining their social mission into actually running a start-up social enterprise. Finally, these social entrepreneurs will come together to showcase their success at a ‘Dragons’ Den’ competition where they will compete for investment.

Similar to the UK reality series ‘Dragon’s Den’ going into the Den involves pitching for investment to an extremely successful group of judges – a soon to be revealed panel of financial industry players and social enterprise experts.

In addition to requiring pupils to showcase their smart money skills, this core component will rely on good communication and presentation skills, and wrap with a much anticipated award ceremony come November.

Guiding pupils on their journey are expert teams of English Language school teachers, financial industry mentors, facilitators – and a network of friends from around the world going through a similar journey with SEA in Scotland, Britain, Australia, Malawi and Egypt.

“Good SENS introduced the potential for cross-border sharing among the Social Enterprise Schools. The initial engagement between the Malaysia and Scotland teams has gone very well. Students are highly engaged, highly articulate and see what’s going on in their communities. We look forward to keeping this inclusive network going so that students can continue to learn about one another, and the social issues that resonate with them,” said guest speaker and SEA Scotland Lead Education Facilitator, Jay Lamb.

Closing the virtual launch, Assistant Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia, Abu Hassan Alshari Yahaya also reminded participants to take advantage of this unique experience and share feedback to improve on the pilot programme for potential expansion across Malaysia.

Established in 2017, FINCO’s collective efforts aim to guide as well as provide children and youth with the right educational tools to help achieve their respective life aspirations.

The joint initiative of Good SENS aligns with MOE’s National Curriculum and Malaysia’s National Strategy for Financial Literacy.