Finnish Students Learn Financial Literacy in Miniature Business Villages

This article is part of the FT’s Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign joint seasonal appeal with Magic Breakfast. The children scurry around from bank to café, supermarket, TV station and various municipal offices. A farmer drives by on his tractor taking produce to be sold, while nearby a photographer is earning money in their studio. This is not taking place in a real town but a make-believe one in a warehouse on the outskirts of Finland’s capital, Helsinki.

Dozens of sixth-graders, 12- and 13-year-olds, are taking part in Yrityskylä, a national network of business villages designed to improve their financial literacy. Fully 91 per cent of Finnish students take part in a 10-lesson programme, during which they learn how business, the economy and society work as well as how to apply for a job. Finally, they are let loose in the business village for a day to practice teamwork in their work uniforms, buy drinks and food with the money they earn, and even find out what happens if they spend too much and they need to make emergency cash. “It was so fun,” recalls Taika Smith, now a 17-year-old economics student. “It was the first moment I knew I wanted to do something in business. It was lovely to talk to people, and to do some maths related to economics.” Finland aims to achieve the best financial literacy in the world by 2030, and projects such as Yrityskylä are a big part of the push. Already in 2018, Finland placed second financial literacy at schools (behind Estonia) in the Pisa rankings from the OECD. The Financial Times launched the Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign in 2021 to democratise teaching about money and finance with free, engaging content for young people across the UK. This year’s seasonal charity appeal supports both FLIC and Magic Breakfast, a UK charity providing more than 200,000 young people a day with their first meal of the day

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