Secondary School of Arts, Design, Graphics and Clothing from Zabok winner of Hanfa’s competition “Protect your money”
Video made by pupils of the Secondary School of Arts, Design, Graphics and Clothing from Zabok has won the competition “Protect your money“, organised by the Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Agency (Hanfa) on the occasion of the Global and European Money Week. The best video, i.e. school, won an interactive board as a prize.
Secondary school pupils from all over Croatia participated in the competition by sending a short video on how to protect their money. When assessing the videos, the three-member Hanfa’s Committee evaluated the creativity and innovation in expression, but even more understanding and presentation of the issue of financial fraud and ways to protect your own money. The aim of the competition was to educate young people and encourage them to think about financial fraud, especially on the Internet and social networks.
At the award-giving ceremony held in Hanfa, the winning team was congratulated by Mr Tomislav Ridzak, Deputy President of the Board, who thanked professors and pupils for recognizing the significance of financial education as an important topic for the future. “Financial education is the best kind of protection against fraud. We are glad that we have been able to get young people interested in this topic and motivate them to get involved. The award-winning work comprehensively addresses the given topic, and the information is presented in a creative and fun way. I would like to thank the winners and their mentors for their excellent work, as well as all other schools for their participation, because they also delivered excellent videos”, said T. Ridzak.
In their award-winning video, pupils addressed the problem of fraud, focusing on the fraud via social networks. These are often false investments, especially in cryptocurrencies, and fake websites are used to show a comfortable lifestyle resulting from investing, in order to attract victims more easily.
The school principal Božica Šarić also commented on this project: “On behalf of the school, mentors and pupils, I would like to thank you for this valuable award. I would also like to commend the efforts by Hanfa, which through various educative sessions, competitions or other activities compensates for the material deficits of school curricula in the context of financial literacy. At the same time, this laudable competition has inspired young people to talk about responsible financial behaviour through interesting activities and media and tools close to them. Mentors played a grateful role in leading them through the processes of research, critical thinking, planning and considering, and integrating the contents of media and financial literacy. We believe that the video made by our pupils will be a small contribution to creating a model behaviour leading to mature financial thinking in everyday life. The interactive board we received as the award will be widely used in all our school processes.”
45 videos from all parts of Croatia participated in the competition, and Ms Tamara Bilankov, teacher and mentor of the winning team, spoke about what it was like to lead young people through the creative process: “We are very honoured to have won the first prize, thank you. In this regard, we are proud that the quality of our work and action in the field of video expression is recognized. It’s very inspiring for pupils when part of their learning goes beyond the classroom walls and when their creations are contextualized within various socially important topics and issues. In this way you have encouraged twelve young people to think and act, and as their mentor, I hope that their work will influence a number of generations in an educative manner.”
In addition to the winning video, the winners of the second and third place were also announced – the School of Economics and Commerce Čakovec and V. gimnazija from Zagreb, respectively.
By selecting the best video and giving the award, Hanfa completed this year's marking of the Global and European Money Week, in which it participated with numerous educational activities. It should be pointed out that Hanfa is involved in educational activities throughout the year, by holding workshops and panel discussions, participating and organizing conferences and publishing educational content via its communication channels. Special attention is paid to education and investment in financial literacy of young people, and we are hereby inviting all interested schools, faculties and associations to contact us regarding potential cooperation throughout the year.
