Abstract
"Bussola finanziaria" targets students attending the first year of vocational education in Lombardy (Grade 9 in the Italian education system). These are students who, with high probability, will not pursue tertiary education but will enter the labor market after completing secondary school (Grade 13).
The aim of the project is to enhance these students’ economic and financial literacy from the outset, as well as to positively influence their attitudes and steer them away from highly risky financial behaviors once they enter the labor market.
The intervention protocol involves supporting these students over a period of two years (Grades 9 and 10) with approximately 10 hours per year of lessons and workshops, held during school hours but delivered by external experts.
The intervention recruited 36 vocational institutes in Lombardy, prioritizing those with higher levels of implicit dropout risk—that is, a higher proportion of students who, by Grade 10, had not yet achieved the expected learning outcomes for Grade 8, as measured through national standardized tests.
The effects of the intervention are estimated through a randomized controlled trial (RCT), which randomly assigned the 36 schools into three arms of 12 schools each: two treatment arms (each managed by one of two organizations implementing slightly different interventions) and one control arm.
The outcome variables are measured through a purpose-built questionnaire assessing the students' knowledge, attitudes, and simulated behaviors at three different points in time: at baseline (November 2025); at the end of the first year of the intervention (May 2026); and at the end of the second year of the intervention (May 2027).