Irish Funds Transition Year Financial Literacy Pilot Update: Loreto Clonmel

On Wednesday, 15 March, 40 students completed the TY Financial Literacy Programme in Loreto Clonmel under the guidance of Aislinn O’Keeffe as the Lead Facilitator in her Alma Mater. The students started the programme at the end of January when we introduced Irish Funds and the programme. 

The students were very interested in the topic of Consumer Protection and how it linked to Investment Funds. Two weeks later, in Module two, we introduced the story of Bernie Madoff; described in a news clipping as an “American fraudster and financier who was the mastermind of the largest Ponzi scheme in history, worth about $64.8 billion”. This newsclip was the perfect segway to introduce the concept of “Taking Responsibility” and the role of the Investment Manager, risk, the role of the Depositary.  

The second part of the session focused on the markets. We looked at some of the common Stocks on the NASDAQ and Euronext.  We also introduced Silicon Valley Bank and what is currently happening in the markets. In each of the examples that we shared, we looked at the current price and the impact of Covid on the Share price.  The final module was very practical.  We created a Global Large Caps fund with our $10,000 investment. The students chose the stocks acting as Investment Managers. The Economics teacher will review the share prices with the students in the class.   Aislinn is also connecting with the teacher to arrange a site visit to the Waystone offices.