You may not be aware of how much Taiwanese children and teenagers lack financial management and financial knowledge. How can we do our part to enhance the financial literacy foundations of future financial leaders?
What does it matter if children lack financial knowledge? In fact, a poor foundation may deeply affect their future development and path of life!
According to a survey conducted by yes123.com.tw in 2022, 45.8% of Taiwan’s working population is living from paycheck to paycheck or even spending more than their income. It is estimated that there are 4.21 million people who are employed in Taiwan, and 26.3% of them have the problem of “needing to borrow money to get by.”
Therefore, the Social Enterprise Development and Research Center of National Sun Yat-sen University invited the Malaysian neOOne Social Enterprise Academy International to Taiwan for a Social Impact Education Sharing Session on February 14, 2023. Twelve principals and staff from 10 Kaohsiung secondary and elementary schools were invited to attend.
On the day of the event, the director of NSYSU’s Social Enterprise Development and Research Center, Yih Jeng, introduced the neOOne organization, which is mainly engaged in social innovation and financial capability education. Director Yih Jeng hopes that through this event, they can cooperate with each other to localize and introduce neOOne’s successful financial education curriculum modules into Taiwan’s secondary and elementary school curricula to strengthen Taiwan students’ social enterprise concepts, financial knowledge, and financial abilities.
The principals of several schools also explored youth financial education. Kaohsiung City principals Yu-shan Kao Gushan Elementary School, Huo-yen Huang of Cijin Junior High School, and Pi-hui Huang of Linyuan Senior High School shared their views on how to cultivate good financial education for young people. They exchanged views with the seminar participants on Taiwan’s education system at all levels, curriculum development priorities, financial and business education curriculum design, on how to cultivate young people to develop good habits of income and spending and promote care and participation in social issues from an early age.
Why did we invite Malaysia’s neOOne Social Enterprise Academy International? In fact, neOOne Social Enterprise Academy International has been developing social enterprise financial education in Malaysian schools since 2020. More than 40 public primary and secondary schools have participated, with about 800 students teaming up and producing more than 150 business projects to solve social issues. The more students who have access to financial education, the more financial vulnerabilities can be reduced!
Ms. Yasmin, neOOne Senior Partner, said that Malaysia is now adopting the curriculum design, implementation results, and social impact. The curriculum is diverse and layered.
The course design has three main core themes: social enterprise awareness, business model operation concepts, and development of profitability framework. The content is edited according to students’ age level and is divided into low, medium, and high levels of difficulty. Materials are drawn from sources close to real life, contextual teaching, game-based learning, and practical application workshops. With the help of professional guidance from industry financiers, the course culminates in a competition, in which the children actually produce social enterprise plans; some of them are even able to generate profits to give back to their schools and neighborhoods.
Ms. Yasmin shared that in the financial empowerment program topics, students practice sound financial habits and explore the sources of money and income, they manage spending through planning and get income from resource management, and they conduct necessary financial planning on a limited budget.
We hope that this seminar will help us learn from Malaysia’s experience in teaching financial business, and help promote social influence starting from the youth in Taiwan.
In addition, while they were in Kaohsiung (2/12-2/16), neOOne also visited: Ark Shelter Store (方舟庇護商店), Kaohsiung Green Shoots Compassion Association (高雄市小草關懷協會), Shanlin Gourd Art Workshop (杉林葫蘆藝術工坊), Pingtung County’s Coconut Garden Elderly Care Home (屏東椰子園老人養護之家), Dragonfly Elegant Pearl and Bead Workshop (蜻蜓雅築), GWG Social Charity Foundation (善慧恩社會慈善基金會), and Syin-Lu Social Welfare Foundation “Factory” (一家工場), a total of seven social enterprises and non-profit organizations. This allowed us to further understand the current situation, business results, and difficulties of social enterprises in southern Taiwan, which will be compiled and included in future case study materials.
The visit of neOOne Social Enterprise Academy International to Taiwan and their experience sharing has provided interaction and exchange between social entrepreneurs and educational institutions. In addition to broadening international perspectives and establishing partnerships, it will also enhance the diversified learning and innovation skills of teachers and students and promote the development of social enterprise and financial education.
(Written by Li-chiung Lo/Edited by the College of Management)