The team from the Lahden yhteiskoulun lukio upper secondary school won the Finnish finals for the Generation €uro Students' Award. The teams from the Helsingin Suomalainen yhteiskoulu school and the Olarin lukio school ranked second and third, respectively. The finals took place at the Bank of Finland Museum on 3 May 2012.
The Generation €uro Students' Award is a team competition about monetary policy, open to students in the 16–19 age group and organised in 11 euro area countries. In the competitions, arranged across Europe, five-strong teams are tasked with submitting a proposal for an interest-rate decision of the Governing Council of the ECB and other possible monetary policy actions. The Bank of Finland organised the competition in Finland. The Finnish finals took place at the same time as the monetary policy meeting of the Governing Council of the ECB in Barcelona, Spain.
‘In selecting the award-winning team, the jury paid particular attention to the analyses and justifications underlying the monetary policy decision proposed by the team,’ noted the chairman of the jury, Seppo Honkapohja, Member of the Board of the Bank of Finland, at the award ceremony.
The Generation €uro Students' Award is part of a programme aimed at promoting economic knowledge and competence, by which the Bank of Finland encourages young people to familiarise themselves with the functioning of the economy. Economic competence has become increasingly important amid the financial crisis. The Generation €uro Students' Award provides young people with an opportunity for learning to identify the impact of monetary policy on the euro area economy and central banking in general.
Teams from 30 schools participated in the competition. The first round of the competition consisted of a quiz organised via the Internet and the second round took the form of essay writing. The three best teams qualified for the finals.
Those participating in the award-winning team were Jesper Kontinen, Juha Leppänen, Valtteri Oesch, Ari Piik and Markus Weckman. The team was tutored by its teacher member Lauri Tervakangas. The winning team and its teacher were awarded an excursion to the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. In Frankfurt, the team will also meet the President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi. The two other teams that qualified for the finals were awarded book gift vouchers.
For further information, please contact:
Iina Lario, Communications Officer, tel. +358 10 831 2689.
Iina Lario, Communications Officer, tel. +358 10 831 2689.
Pictures of the Generation €uro finals in the Bank of Finland Museum
http://www.suomenpankki.fi/globalassets/fi/suomen_pankki/yleisopalvelut/kouluyhteistyo/Documents/high_res.zip (18,5 Mb)
http://www.suomenpankki.fi/globalassets/fi/suomen_pankki/yleisopalvelut/kouluyhteistyo/Documents/high_res.zip (18,5 Mb)