Educating tomorrow’s business leaders

VILNIUS - More than 500 pupils from Lithuania have attended the educational events Get to Know the Bank launched in May this year by Danske Bank, reports LETA.
The campaign which was launched early in May this year was intended for pupils from first to fifth grade.
The key idea of this project was to promote young peoples’ knowledge in the field of finance: to invite pupils to learn how banks operate, about the world of finance and to encourage them to make their first steps towards financial independence.

The events, to date held only in Vilnius, have been attended by over 500 children from more than 20 schools. This month, the Get to Know the Bank initiative will expand to Kaunas, Klaipeda, Panevezys, Alytus, and Siauliai.
The approximately two-hour session features an interactive and exciting presentation about the history of the emergence of banks, about their functions and about the nature and operation of banks. The children were invited to take part in a brief excursion. Older children play an exciting ‘Game of minds’ on the topic of finance, while younger pupils take part in the ‘Currency: Lithuania and the world’ quiz.

Gerimanta Stankute, the coordinator of social activity at Danske Bankas, firmly believes in the usefulness of this project.
“We have clearly seen a lack of financial knowledge adequate for their age in children when we met with first grade pupils. The involvement of the children, the diversity of their questions, and the number of topics examined regarding money issues, which is an everyday concern and an important one, is only rarely discussed with children,” Stankute said.
Get to Know the Bank initiative originated from annual events held for the banks employee’s children. The curiosity of the children; their questions, which sometimes went beyond their age; and the positive emotions after half a day spent at the bank all showed that children take a great interest in the topic of finance but lack knowledge in this area.

“When we launched this project at the end of May, we planned to hold the events on Fridays only. But just a couple of weeks later it became clear that one event per week would not be enough. And after approximately 350 children visited Danske Bankas in less than two months, we knew that the project would be renewed this autumn,” Stankute said.
Following the summer holidays, the ‘Get to know the bank’ events are being held three to four times per week, and the waiting list of forms wanting to visit over the next month is already full. The employees of Danske Bankas in Kaunas, Klaipeda, Panevezys, Alytus, and Siauliai also successfully joined the educational project at the beginning of this school year. The ‘Get to know the bank’ events in Panevezys, Alytus, and Siauliai will be held at schools rather than in bank premises, which are not sufficiently spacious to invite entire groups of pupils.

Danske Bank, with headquartered in Copenhagen, is the largest bank in Denmark and the second largest bank in the Northern European financial market in terms of assets. Its share capital amounts to 13.5 billion euros.
The Bank operates in 14 countries, has 734 bank branches, employing almost 23 thousand employees.
Danske Bank was established in 1871 as Den Danske Landmandsbank. After many mergers it became the largest bank in Denmark and developed its activity in Sweden and Norway.

The Group’s activities in the Baltics started with the acquisition of Sampo Bank in 2006. At that time, Sampo Bank comprised Sampo Pankki in Finland, Sampo Banka in Latvia, Sampo bankas in Lithuania and Sampo Pank in Estonia. Today, Sampo Banka and Sampo bankas have changed their names to Danske Banka and Danske bankas, respectively.