Visa & CCVSA’s 2019 Practical Money Skills program draws to a close providing financial education to over 4,000 students nationwide

09/10/2019

Eighth instalment of annual program sees involvement of 4,000 students from 73 universities across 23 cities and provinces throughout Vietnam

 

The Central Committee of Vietnam Students’ Association (CCVSA) and Visa today held the grand finale event of their 2019 “Practical Money Skills” program at Hanoi University, concluding a program in which 5 teams of students from across the country developed plans to help promote financial literacy among their peers.

The team MTU (Mien Tay Universities) from Mien Tay Construction University and Vinh Long University of Technology Education was awarded the grand prize of a Visa prepaid card loaded with VND20 million for its campaign “MTU – 15 days of saving” which really impressed the judges for its creativity, reach and clarity in conveying a strong financial education message.

Nguyen Minh Triet, Permanent Vice President of CCVSA, said: “After eight years of cooperating with Visa on this program, we continue to be impressed by the creativity and hard work from students across the country, no matter whether they’re in one of the major metropolitan centers, or in a rural province. The scale of the program has been expanded from the two major metropolitan centresto nationwide, creating an opportunity for students to explore, experience and practice financial management knowledge and skills for themselves and their communities. We hope to continue our partnership with Visa to organize more financial and start-up opportunities for students.”

Madame Dang Tuyet Dung, Country Manager for Visa Vietnam and Laos said: “At Visa, we’ve been running financial literacy programs around the world for over two decades now—so this is a core part of our company’s operational strategy. Financial literacy and building financial management skills for individuals in the community plays a crucial and positive role for families and the development of a modern society. Students are dynamic, smart and undoubtedly the pioneer generation to initiate and spread such values to each family and the community as a whole. Therefore, seeing so many students engaging with the topic of this program is incredibly gratifying for me, and for all of us at Visa.”

For this year’s Practical Money Skills program — the eighth annual instalment of the program — teams of up to three students had worked to address the issue of “Cháy túi” (literally, “wallet on fire”, similar to the English phrase “money burns a hole in my pocket”). This included sub-themes such as security while online shopping, being careful with contracts, and managing credit to avoid unsustainable debt. Students were given free rein to develop their plans, and could incorporate any suitable activities, games or media they felt would help to educate their peers about financial literacy.

Since kicking off in April of this year, the program saw roughly 1,300 submissions from 4,000 students nationwide, coming from 73 universities across 23 cities and provinces. Seven finalist teams were chosen to implement their programs between July and August, and were given funding to help them realize their plans. The five teams with the best results were chosen to attend today’s grand finale.

In addition to those directly involved in the program, the program’s educational materials (both physical and digital) reached over 35,000 people across Vietnam via social networks, while over 1,000 students got involved with the initiatives organized by the teams in round two, including holding workshops, debates, competitions—with one team even running a radio program in their university dorm.

Over the course of the program, Visa and the CCVSA released an online “Cháy túi Prevention Toolkit”, which students were able to draw on for inspiration for their programs. The kit includes eight useful tools such as: the “Impulse Extinguisher”, to be sprayed in case of reckless spending; the “Lie-spotting Flashlight”, to help you be contract-savvy; the “Privacy Mask”, to help protect personal information when making online transactions, to name a few.

A range of program resources are available on the program’s Facebook page, Instagram and YouTube to teach students the basic concepts of spending responsibly while learning to save and budget wisely.

For more information about Visa’s financial literacy program, please visit: http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com.vn/ and http://hoisinhvien.com.vn.

 

 

 

About Visa Inc.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is the world’s leader in digital payments. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. The company’s relentless focus on innovation is a catalyst for the rapid growth of digital commerce on any device for everyone, everywhere. As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce. For more information, visit  About Visa, visa.com/blog and @VisaNews.