BATT takes Global Money Week to secondary schools

More than 250 sec­ondary school stu­dents learned prac­ti­cal mon­ey-man­age­ment skills aimed at help­ing them make smarter fi­nan­cial de­ci­sions in the fu­ture, dur­ing fi­nan­cial lit­er­a­cy ses­sions host­ed by the Bankers As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (BATT).

Un­der the theme “Smart Mon­ey Talks”, the ses­sions, which were held on March 11 and 13 as part of Glob­al Mon­ey Week ac­tiv­i­ties, brought to­geth­er Form Four and Five stu­dents from Princes Town East and West Sec­ondary Schools, and Point Fortin East Sec­ondary.

The ini­tia­tive fo­cused on equip­ping stu­dents with prac­ti­cal skills in bud­get­ing, sav­ing, dig­i­tal bank­ing, fraud aware­ness and en­tre­pre­neur­ship, while en­cour­ag­ing open con­ver­sa­tions about man­ag­ing mon­ey.

BATT Ex­ec­u­tive Di­rec­tor Ke­ston How­ell told stu­dents the habits they form to­day will in­flu­ence their fu­ture op­por­tu­ni­ties.

“The habits you build to­day will shape the op­por­tu­ni­ties you have to­mor­row. Learn­ing how to bud­get, save, and make thought­ful spend­ing de­ci­sions gives you con­trol over your fi­nan­cial fu­ture,” he said.

Stu­dents al­so took part in the Smart Mon­ey Feud game, in­spired by Fam­i­ly Feud, where they tack­led re­al-life fi­nan­cial sce­nar­ios.

“The stu­dents’ en­thu­si­asm and ea­ger­ness to en­gage on fi­nan­cial top­ics were tru­ly in­spir­ing and gave me great op­ti­mism that they will be more in­ten­tion­al in de­ter­min­ing their fi­nan­cial fu­ture,” How­ell said.

Re­pub­lic Bank rep­re­sen­ta­tives Sharon Leigh Pierre and Kim Ed­wards shared in­sights on goal set­ting and dig­i­tal bank­ing tools, while Sher­win Forte, man­ag­er of cor­po­rate se­cu­ri­ty, ad­dressed the risks posed by scams and fraud.

An­oth­er high­light was the Busi­ness En­tre­pre­neur­ship Chal­lenge led by Youth Busi­ness Trinidad and To­ba­go CEO She­dron Collins, where stu­dents pitched in­no­v­a­tive busi­ness ideas.

The ses­sions formed part of Glob­al Mon­ey Week, ob­served from March 16 to 22, which aims to raise aware­ness about the im­por­tance of fi­nan­cial lit­er­a­cy among youth world­wide.