Another cross border OK Centre started its operation in Slovakia, in Nagyszombat, based on the Hungarian OK Education Centre. The in the centre 5000 Slovakian and cross border Hungarian primary and secondary school students can participate in experiential financial, economic and management trainings every year.
The opening of the centre means a leap forward for the region in the development of financial literacy, as the financial-economic rudimentary knowledge of our country, and also of our neighbouring countries, is low. The centre was established thanks to the Borderless financial and economic education project, which was realised by the EU funded Interreg V-A Slovakia-Hungary Programme.
The first OK Education Centre was opened in Budapest in 2012, which provides radically different, free financial, economic and management trainings for primary and secondary school students. The project was realised and is run by OTP Fáy András Foundation. The trainings and the education centre itself soon achieved immense popularity: the trainings are so oversubscribed, they are needed to be booked half a year in advance. Based on this success, in 2016 an OK Education Centre started its operation in Nyíregyháza, which services the need of the country’s eastern region. The expansion, the application of the know-how in a much wider scope does not stop at the borders; courtesy of OTP Bank Romania in last October the Bucharest based education centre opened its gates as well, and from this June trainings started in the Slovakian centre as well.
Every year 5000 students can receive trainings in Nagyszombat.
In the Hungarian OK Education Centre over 20.000 students can acquire modern financial, economic and management skills in a playful manner annually. In the newly opened Nagyszombat education centre three training rooms are waiting for the students, with whom initially five specifically trained trainers will work. The aim is to realise the training of 5000 Slovakian primary and secondary school students. Additionally – similarly to Hungary – from the further away locations of the country, free bus rides will take the students to the centre. Within the project, both in Hungary and Slovakia, for the responsible parents and teachers the trainings will be realised as well.
“In the framework of the Interreg V-A Slovakia-Hungary Cooperation Program, we have been cooperating with the OTP Ready Foundation in Slovakia since 2017. In Slovakia and Hungary, too, there is a very low level of financial culture, financial and future planning, and our cooperation offers solutions to this problem. Since last year, thanks to this project, our trainers can get to Slovakian primary and secondary schools, and the opening OK Center in Szombathely is the next important step in our cooperation.” – stated Dr. Tamás Mészáros, president of the board of trustees of OTP Fáy András Foundation, on the opening of the new centre.
The OK Centre in Bucharest became a busy hub
The speciality of the education centre, which started its trainings in 2017 in the Romanian capital, is that it provides trainings not just for students, but for adults as well. Next to the trainings, the Romanian centre importantly functions as a “hub”: the OK Centre has become a favourite co-working place for the youth, which is preferred by young entrepreneurs and creative students as well.
“In addition to the generally low level of financial awareness in our region, the traditional form and content approach to education has been in crisis all over the world. In our fast-paced and increasingly digital world, which is still interesting today, can no longer capture the attention of a young person tomorrow, and modern jobs also require completely new skills that cannot be mastered by classical methods. We have developed a radically new methodology that responds to the challenges of the 21st century in Hungary, which is attracts attention not only from neighbouring countries but from all over the world, including Finland, Malaysia and Singapore” – added Dr. Peter Schrankó, CEO of OTP Fáy András Foundation.
