05/17/2022 15:37
Since its beginnings, the Zagreb Stock Exchange has worked intensively on education on topics related to the capital market, investment and active access to its own finances. Over the years, the Exchange has regularly organized a series of lectures for various groups of financial market participants, ranging from small investors to infrastructure institutions and professionals, with special emphasis on the student and high school population. Over time, there was a need for a more formalized approach to education and the expansion of the knowledge base on financial topics, which led to the establishment of the Zagreb Stock Exchange Academy.
Zagreb Stock Exchange Academy was launched in May 2010 as an educational department of the Zagreb Stock Exchange, with the support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and today is the largest provider of financial market education services in Croatia.
The Academy has so far developed a total of over 90 different programs, several more complex in terms of duration and comprehensiveness, such as the Investor relations program, completed by as many as nine generations of professionals, or the Compliance program, completed by four generations. So far, the Academy has organized more than 500 educational events, through which more than 10,000 participants have passed, of which approximately 70% have been provided with a free education. The Academy places great emphasis on the education of young people, especially high school and university students, of whom about 5,000 have been educated over the years. Apart from the ones from Croatia, the Academy has been visited during these 10 years by numerous international groups of students from all over Europe and the world (from Brazil, South Africa, Canada, China, the USA and other countries). Every year, the Academy is involved in the activities of marking Global Money Week, as one of more than 16,000 organizations around the world marking this initiative aimed at raising awareness of the importance of financial literacy of children and youth.
In addition, the Academy has so far organized 12 round tables and discussions on various current topics in the field of finance and investment, cooperates with numerous organizations and institutions whose goal is to improve financial literacy and was part of the body in charge of adopting a strategic framework for financial literacy at the Ministry of Finance.
The Academy also manages an online stock exchange trading simulation called Virtual Stock Exchange, which has so far registered more than 25,000 users and has been used for more than a decade in teaching capital markets at faculties, colleges and high schools.
The Academy also cooperates with numerous student associations, faculties and secondary and high schools: it provides them with various benefits, enables visits to the Academy, organizes lectures and quizzes of financial knowledge, visits faculties and schools and supports financial literacy projects in a number of other ways. The Academy has twice been awarded the "Student Friend" award, which is given to organizations for significant contribution to the quality of student life, education and professional development of students.
Since 2012, the Academy has been awarding its own Award for Contribution to Capital Market Education, whose laureates have so far been individuals, organizations and associations such as the Economic Clinics, the Financial Club of the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb, eStudent, mathematician Toni Milun, economist Velimir Šonje and others who popularize financial knowledge and make it available to a wider circle of individuals.
