About Junior ATB
Junior ATB spreads financial literacy skills to young Albertans in schools across the province through an interactive experience to students in Grades 4 to 6. The online program offers activities and conversations designed specifically for virtual learning. Concepts include savings, budgeting, everyday banking, credit, and protecting your money with the opportunity to ask questions at the end of each presentation. The program aims to teach students how to manage and save money, while helping them develop invaluable life skills for their future.
Learning for Life with Junior ATB
Normally in-person, Junior ATB branches are set up for Grades 4 to 6 students and mimic that of an actual ATB branch. Students are hired for various positions at the beginning of the school year. They learn to operate their own branch and take deposits from their classmates, which are then set aside into real ATB bank accounts. Junior ATB had to think of other ways to engage with students and this is where they came up with virtual and online Financial Literacy Learning sessions. They took all the knowledge students would have learned throughout the school year operating their branches—things like how bank accounts work—and built upon it. What resulted was interactive sessions per school for students to learn the ins and outs of how money and banking works.
The Jr. ATB Financial Program always brings a smile to one's face, as students cover a variety of topics from savings to protecting their money with the guidance of ATB associates and teachers. Having children engage in financial literacy leaves us hopeful that we are educating financially responsible students. As one student put it so eloquently, "This is work. It's preparation for real life."