On June 17, 2022, within the WE ACT: Women Empowerment Action Programme, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), with the financial support of the European Union, launched a free online financial literacy course with a special focus on carreer in sports. The idea of the course was developed by the world champion and world record holder among juniors Alina Shukh and the attaché of the EU and NATO Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Anastasia Tokarska during a hackathon for promoting women's leadership in sports and diplomacy. Bearing in mind the relatively short duration of the sports career, Alina and Anastasia proposed creating an educational course that would teach to plan expenses, make regular savings and effective investments so sportswomen know how to create financial security for themselves before the sport stops bringing income.
“Sports career is saturated, emotional, but short-term. Big earnings come at an early age, but end suddenly and fairly quickly. That is why athletes need to be able to distribute high short-term earnings for the entire life," noted Alina Shukh, author of the online course.
Although the course "Managing own finances: specifics of sports career" contains specific recommendations for athletes, the vast majority of training materials will be useful to anyone who wants to develop the skills of effective personal money management: cost planning, financial planning, financial goals and counteracting risks. The main expert of the course was Alina Shukh, who, besides her experience in sports, is professionally engaged in the topic of managing personal finances. Business analyst Roman Koshovskyi and financial advisor Vlad Koval joined the development of the course as experts.
The skill of managing own finances wisely is extremely useful today. After all, in the circumstances of declining incomes and rising prices, this skill can help maintain financial security. The online course on managing own finances has a separate module that highlights the special financial constraints imposed during the martial law. All students who successfully complete the course during the first month will have the opportunity to ask questions and receive feedback from the author and experts of the course.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine supports the promotion of the course as an information partner.
“This course is an opportunity for modern people to improve their financial literacy skills. In my opinion, the course is unique for two reasons: first, it was developed under the coordination of a Ukrainian athlete, and therefore adapted to the specifics of a sports career; secondly, it is relevant in view of the challenges sports face, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's military aggression against Ukraine, which underscore the need for sound personal finance management. For its part, our Ministry supports all initiatives that promote the development of athletes at all stages, including the completion of sports careers in line with modern European practices," said Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine for European Integration Andriy Chesnokov.
The online course "Managing own finances: features of a sports career" is now available to anyone on the Zrozumilo! platform by the following link:
https://courses.zrozumilo.in.ua/courses/course-v1:EEF+EEF-025+Jun-2022/about
Background information:
EU and UNFPA join their efforts to provide gender-responsive emergency support to address the COVID-19 aftermath and strengthen gender equality in Ukraine within the flagman programme ‘WE ACT: Women Empowerment Action’. The Programme is aimed to protect women from gender-based violence (GBV), remove barriers for women’s leadership and support female frontline healthcare responders to COVID-19. More about the Programme.
