OTP Bank Romania Foundation

The Right to Education Foundation was officially launched in October 2014. Its main mission consists of providing free financial education and career orientation training programs for young people. The Right to Education Foundation actively supports the development of a responsible financial attitude among Romania’s young generation. Through our day to day educational activities, we help develop financial, economic and managerial aptitudes among young people. Besides offering financial education training, we also focus on helping young people learn about career planning. With the help of non-formal training programs, we assist them in learning about their needs, temperament, and aptitudes, while also, teaching them how to plan their professional careers in a conscious and efficient manner. Thus, our main goal consists of assisting young people in becoming financially independent and autonomous adults, helping them transition more smoothly on the job market. Regarding the organization’s size, our team originally consisted of 4 members back in 2014 (project manager, educational consultant, and two trainers), while, today, it consists of (director, coordinator, 11 trainers). In the last 5 years of activity since its launch, the Foundation’s trainers have worked with more than 12000 young people all across Romania. The Foundation closed educational partnerships with more than 170 educational institutions, private and non-private, all across Romania. Our partner institutions benefit from a 100% free of charge program, in the sense that: not only are our educational programs free, but we also cover all costs implied by the organizing of such trainings outside Bucharest where our main headquarters lie (types of costs covered: travel, trainer’s accommodation, training materials, etc.). An important milestone in the timeline of our Foundation consists of the launching of OK Centre on the 5th of October 2017. OK Centre is the first financial education hub opened in Romania and it is located in Bucharest. With the opening of this center, we wanted to create a space where young people, but also, young adults could come together and learn. Besides this, the center is open to people who want to improve themselves by educating themselves, as well as, to people who are change-makers and contribute to society in a meaningful way. Thus, we offer the space free to innovative minds who activate as valuable members of society in a variety of domains (education, ngo, art, environment, technology, etc.). During our fifth year of activity, our Foundation has acquired and developed relevant experience in non-formal trainings. Our trainers have meaningful aptitudes when working with this specific target group and they learn continuously so as to improve their skills and expertise. In 2015, along with our partners from OTP Fáy András Alapítvány, we designed and adapted a new training curricula, the intellectual output of an Erasmus+ project (“Career Project – Going beyond borders”) which we undertook together with OTP Fáy András Alapítvány as the applicant organization and The Right to Education Foundation as partners. During this two-year project, we have acquired specific and valuable knowledge which aids in laying an important base for managing and implementing a new Erasmus+ project as the lead organization.