The employees of Barclays Bank spent a day to impart financial literacy among the under-privileged youth of Manesar, a rural district in Haryana located beyond Gurgaon.
Smile Foundation has been training youth in livelihood skills in Manesar village and imparting them knowledge in computer, English, personality development and health awareness. Till date more than 100 youth in the area have been empowered through such trainings.
There is a need to increase awareness and knowledge of rural population on banking, how to utilise the various products offered by the banks and increase their savings and secure their future financially. There is a need to instil the habit of savings from the period one starts earning. The youth from STeP programme who start earning require training on how to open a bank account.
Barclays Bank employees spent 4 hours with the youth and women from the surrounding area and briefed them on the basics of the financial sector. They told many useful things like how one can open account with banks, the importance of a savings accounts, the procedure for procuring different loans, job opportunities with the bank, effective money management etc.
Among other activities done on the day were group discussions on govt. sector jobs vs. pvt. sector jobs. The students were divided into 2 groups and the employees moderated the session. In the end some fun activities were conducted like word power, damsheraz and singing competition.