VISIT TO THE COAF SMART CENTER OPERATING IN LORI

Soghomon Mirzoyan, President of the Association of Financiers of Armenia, was invited to the COAF Smart Center operating in Lori to conduct a lecture-meeting with the studying children and youth on the importance of financial literacy.

The COAF SMART Center is a non-formal educational institution that has been operating since 2018, providing equal opportunities for rural children and youth from 27 communities in the Lori region. Starting from the age of 8, SMART students explore programs across engineering, athletics, arts, music, languages, and entrepreneurship.

In addition to the SMART citizenship curriculum, other educational formats are available, particularly:

1. Individual meetings with an educational consultant,
2. Participation in meetings with industry experts called "SMARTamets",
3. Visits to institutions related to various industries,
4. Additional courses with guest specialists,
5. Implementation of SMART projects. The COAF SMART Center's curriculum offers project-based learning. Crucially, during the programs, participants learn to apply theoretical knowledge in practice and combine it with creative skills.

During the meeting, Soghomon Mirzoyan delivered lectures to various groups, while the students, in turn, presented the knowledge about finance they had acquired at SMART COAF. This knowledge is passed on to the students through a methodology developed by Nelli Kobelyan, a specialist in the financial sector. Especially interesting were the manual "Let's Communicate in Financial Language" and the financial board game developed by the children with Nelli's support, through which Nelli fosters a financially literate mindset in children from an early age.

An agreement was reached to make the meetings between the Association and SMART COAF regular.