SelfMate: A digital platform on financial education in European Union

Digital financial education for all through a free and simple educational platform

Financial inclusion is a crucial aspect of integration, particularly in a financially advanced area like the European Union. It is essential to be able to make transfers, to pay electronically, to easily access to home-banking, to use cards, file digital documents etc. Financial inclusion of foreign students or labour migrants is relatively straightforward, but asylum seekers/refugees face high difficulties, starting from valid document identities that are related to KYC (Know Your Customer) standards.

The importance of facilitating integration in digital and financial literacy relies on the fact that the same EU adult citizens structurally face deceptive usage of unsolicited emails, phone calls, emails, put under pressure in learning new lexicon and not reaching everyday financial sustainability. Migrants face worse conditions than EU citizens, and higher numbers of migrant adults risk to fall into debt or to pay for what they have not asked for, failing then to reach their everyday sustainability, systematically reinforce the connection between digital dis-empowerment and social exclusion, as also shown by the EU Digital Agenda founding document. Financial inclusion of migrants is atop of the agenda in inclusion discussions, as many European citizens have started showing intolerance, lack of understanding of the problems of the inclusion process.

The dis-empowered position of migrants and more fragile households in Europe is also related to the lack of digital financial education of educators. In fact, many documents and discussions of the European Commission encourage educators to take a step forward. In order to complete this educational mission, the most important resource we need is appropriately qualified teaching personnel. We require educators to be confident in digital and financial themes because only in this way we will have confident adult learners.

To answer to this situation, the project SELF-MATE aims at creating a viable pattern on digital financial education for adults, mainly migrants and dis-empowered households to 'count in the moments that count'. SELF-MATE is supported by Erasmus plus programme and, like a partnership, it involves different partners from Sweden (ProIFall), Italy (Polygonal), Spain (GoEurope), United Kingdom (Kairos) and Turkey (FAAL). Between 2018 and 2020 SELF-MATE foresees different actions, namely:

1. Develop a theoretical and practical framework of digital financial learning/teaching, taking into account informal and non-formal aspects of education, both for adult migrant learners & trainers [O1]. It will be attached to a self-assessment tool of knowledge in order to strengthen the self-empowerment of learners in learning objectives;
2. Set a methodology pack – Development of the Training for Trainers materials and guidelines for effective digital/financial competencies and transversal skills for migrants, based on the results of the previous framework [O2];
3. Create blended training material for migrant learners + video-tutorials and pilot testing on 50 participants at a local level [O3]
4. Set a short-term joint staff train the trainer event [C1]: 20 participants (4 per country) among teachers, educators and trainers working with vocational education and training of migrant adults, will improve their knowledge of digital financial competences and better their training competencies.
5. Set a simplified-access e-learning platform for support and vocational certification of competences of migrants, having it different extra-European languages [O4].

Marco De Cave is from Rome, Italy. He is the president of @polygonal.ngo. Marco De Cave is M.Sc. in Peace and Development Work. He is specialised in digital education for social inclusion.

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