AIMING FOR BRUSSELS
- The virtual finals of the European Money Quiz are held on Tuesday, 10 May.
- Finland’s finalist contestants are Konsta Impiö and Iiro Paananen from the Kiiminkipuisto school in Oulu.
Finnish finalists are selected on the basis of the Zaldo financial literacy campaign’s final test. Zaldo is a gamified learning environment that provides materials tailored for grades 4 to 9 in comprehensive school, reaching students between the ages of 10 and 16.
Finance Finland is a member of the European Banking Federation (EBF), the organiser of the European Money Quiz.
Konsta Impiö and Iiro Paananen are Finland’s representatives to the 2022 European Money Quiz (EMQ) finals. The eighth-grade students were selected as the finalists through an optional course on entrepreneurship education they had both picked.
“We spent three lessons studying the Zaldo learning materials and then completed the final test. Quite a few students in our course got a good score in the test”, says Iiro Paananen.
Finland’s representatives were selected from the highest-scoring eighth-grade class to complete the Zaldo final test. The hard training of the entrepreneurship education students paid off, rewarding them with the option to represent Finland in the international finals. The two best students in the course were selected through an internal round of qualifiers, which made use of the questions of the 2019 EMQ finals.
“The questions weren’t all that difficult, quite easy in fact”, comments Konsta Impiö. Paananen agrees but admits that a couple of the questions required a bit more thought. The boys are confident, which bodes well for Finland in the competition.
Sights set on the award trip to Brussels
“Our aim is to reach Brussels ‒ now it’s time to train a bit so that we can ace the test with quick answers”, Impiö comments on the team’s next plans. Although the finals are organised virtually, the best five contestants will be awarded with a trip to Brussels in June. The trip will include a visit to the European Parliament, for example. The schools of the three best teams will receive cash awards.
The winners of the EMQ finals are decided on the basis of a set of multiple-choice questions. The questions are related to finance and economy in general as well as to the management of personal finances.
“Economics and mathematics both interest me. I’m interested in how money is used and how it can be managed to maintain a solid financial footing also as an adult”, Iiro Paananen says.
The optional subject of entrepreneurship education has not only taught the boys about financial matters but also about advertising and business, for example in the form of school bazaars. Konsta Impiö was drawn to the course by the freedom and opportunities that entrepreneurship enables.
“I wanted to pick a slightly less typical subject. Entrepreneurship seemed interesting because you have full control over what you do. And if the business takes off, you can earn a lot of money”, Impiö says.
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