Finland’s Successful Educational Model and its Financial Literacy Lessons for Mexico
Finland, renowned globally for its successful educational model, offers valuable lessons in financial education. This comes as Mexico’s current government implements the National Strategy for Financial Education.
Finland’s Integration of Financial Literacy in Education
Despite geographical differences, Finland’s educational structure is worth studying. It ranked second in the OECD’s 2016 survey on adults’ financial literacy skills and in the PISA report of 2018 on financial literacy, measuring students’ understanding of money-related issues.
In Finland, financial literacy has been part of the curriculum for a long time. According to Santander’s study, “The Value of Learning,” what’s surprising is the transversal approach integrated into various subjects.
Active Participation of Institutions and Government in Financial Education
This approach has yielded positive results due to the natural link between financial literacy and many subjects. Additionally, several NGOs contribute to providing financial education in educational centers.
For instance, Finance Finland, representing Finland’s financial services sector, provides schools with teaching materials for personal finance education and has been sponsoring free workshops on insurance since 2019.
The Bank of Finland also plays a crucial role in developing the Finnish people’s financial capabilities by creating a national strategy for promoting financial literacy implemented in 2022. The institution also opened a Financial Literacy Center at the Bank of Finland Museum that same year.
Finland’s 2030 Goal: Become the World’s Most Financially Literate Citizens
The Bank of Finland’s strategy aims ambitiously to make Finnish citizens the world’s most financially literate by 2030, according to Arnie Zareei Bogoya, a member of the Edufinet Project team.
“Their vision is clear: financial literacy should be a pillar of national well-being. It’s not just about knowing how to save or invest but fostering a more conscious, planned, and responsible way of thinking,” Bogoya explains.
The national report on promoting financial education in Finland identifies three dimensions to work on: knowledge, behavior, and attitude. “In other words, knowing, doing, and wanting to do,” Bogoya adds.
Each dimension applies three levels of competence—basic, intermediate, and advanced—distributed across different areas of domestic economics: daily expenses, planning and saving, debt, investment, insurance or pensions. The goal is for each citizen to find their place on this scale and progress step by step.
Continuous Financial Learning Throughout Life
Bogoya emphasizes that the Finnish strategy doesn’t just focus on schools or high schools; it promotes lifelong financial learning that accompanies individuals throughout their lives.
Children are introduced to these topics in their classes and extracurricular activities. Adult life reinforces this through social services, unions, companies, banks, or neighborhood associations. In retirement, the focus is on updating knowledge to manage pensions and prevent fraud.
“Financial literacy is not conceived as a subject but as a permanent citizenship competence, just as necessary as digital or health literacy,” Bogoya states.
The Finnish action guide acknowledges financial literacy as a tool for inclusion, reducing inequality, preventing over-indebtedness, and improving household resilience against economic crises.
“If Finland achieves its goal of becoming the world’s leading nation in financial literacy by 2030, it will have demonstrated that financial education can become a genuine state policy serving collective well-being,” Bogoya concludes.
The success of this model will be systematically measured, investigated, and evaluated to ensure its ongoing effectiveness in an increasingly digitalized economic environment.
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