TY Financial Literacy Programme Update: Scoil Bhríde Secondary School

Nearly 40 TY students took part in our TY Programme at Scoil Bhríde Secondary School, Tuam.  We were joined by John Conroy, Relationship Manager, BNP Paribas as our Industry Lead.  

The first session took place at the beginning of February. John Conroy described his background, including going to college in Limerick and how his career in finance allowed him to travel as far as Australia, before eventually ending back in Loughrey in Galway, where he grew up! We talked about BNP’s presence in Ireland and ultimately Galway.  Galway is also home to a lot of the large Pharma Companies, so it served as a useful background to understand Ireland as an attractive location for the Financial Services Industry.  

The highlight for the girls throughout the programme was the real-life scenarios of stories about the industry.  We showed them share prices and the stock markets, and then weaved in the roles of the investment manager, the administrator, the transfer agents, and professional advisors.  Business teacher, Cathy Dermody was really engaged and asked questions that were relevant and thought provoking for the students. John Conroy kept the students engaged with real life examples from life and the workplace.

During the second Module, after explaining some of the investment concepts using Monopoly, the girls chose six shares to invest their $10,000 in.  During the next Module, we compared the values.  We had some excellent “investment managers” in the group.   The students asked plenty of questions!