St Vincent’s Secondary School and Gurranabraher Credit Union have teamed up to provide junior cycle students in the school with an easy way of saving.  This is the culmination of months of work involving the School, the Credit Union and the Transition Year Students.

This project is unique in that the Transition Year Students have set up the mini credit union which models the structure of Gurranabraher Credit Union, complete with a Board, Management Team and tellers.  Gurranabraher Credit Union provide the hardware as well as onsite support during the days the Schools Credit Union is open.

The Transition year students are also responsible for the marketing of the Mini Credit Union within the school supported by the Marketing Manager of Gurranabraher Credit Union.  The first challenge was to get as many students as possible to join the Credit Union and they came up with an innovative campaign.  Their idea was to organise a school trip to Tayto Park, and allow students to save for the cost through the mini credit union.  

From a technical point of view, the School & the Credit Union had to develop a simple way for students to save in the environs of their School.  This is where Wellington IT, who provide Gurranabraher Credit Unions core IT system, offered their help.  Wellington IT developed a card-based savings system, connected directly to Gurranabraher Credit Unions servers.  Under the guidance of a Gurranabraher Staff member, the student tellers are able to call up a student’s account, enter the amount to be saved and print the transaction of a rewritable card. 

Speaking about the initiative, Liam O Doherty (Business Development & Marketing Manager) said “Gurranabraher Credit Union believes that we must support our local schools to promote savings to teach Students financial responsibility.  This is more evidence of how important a strong, safe and secure Credit Union benefits its community.”

Katherine Bullman, Principal St. Vincent’s Secondary School, said “this is the culmination of a lot of work by our staff and students and our partners Gurranabraher Credit Union, which we hope will develop our students in understanding and practicing financial responsibility. We have always worked closely with our local Credit Unions both Cathedral Credit Union and Gurranabraher Credit Union who are a very important part of the local community."