From Personas to Practice: How Learner Profiles Shape Better Financial Education
Financial literacy is not a one-size-fits-all skill. The way a 25-year-old freelancer manages money can be completely different from how a 30-year-old parent or a recent graduate approaches financial planning. Recognizing these differences is essential for creating learning materials that truly resonate with real people. That’s why FINMAN+ integrates the use of learner personas – a proven design tool for making financial education more personal, relevant, and effective.
What Are Learner Personas?
Learner personas are fictional, research-based profiles that represent different groups of learners within a target audience. They are not stereotypes, but detailed, evidence-informed descriptions of typical individuals, capturing their goals, challenges, motivations, and learning behaviours.
For FINMAN+, these personas represent young adults aged 25–30, coming from diverse social, economic, and cultural backgrounds. Some may be early-career professionals managing a steady income; others might be freelancers juggling irregular pay, or young parents balancing family expenses and savings.
By humanizing data through personas, educators can better understand who their learners are – and what kind of learning they truly need.
Why Personas Matter in Financial Literacy
Financial literacy is deeply personal. People make financial decisions based not only on knowledge, but also on habits, emotions, values, and experiences. Personas help bridge this gap between information and empathy.
Using personas allows educators to:
- Design relatable scenarios – Tailor examples and exercises to real-life situations learners face.
- Address diverse needs – Acknowledge differences in confidence, access to banking, or risk perception.
- Create targeted learning materials – Adjust tone, complexity, and delivery style to suit different learner profiles.
- Build inclusion and engagement – Ensure that gender, cultural, and socioeconomic perspectives are represented.
In other words, personas make the learning process human-centered – shaping not just what we teach, but how and why we teach it.
How FINMAN+ Uses Personas in Practice
Within the project, learner personas guide the development of scenario-based materials for financial literacy training. During the educator training session in Zaragoza (July 2025), partners explored how to create and apply personas as a foundation for content co-creation.
For example, one persona might be Elena, a 27-year-old graphic designer working freelance, struggling with irregular income and saving for a home, while another could be Matej, a 29-year-old IT employee who is comfortable with digital payments but unaware of long-term investment options.
These personas help educators build realistic scenarios such as:
- Managing income fluctuations as a freelancer
- Planning short- and long-term savings goals
- Understanding credit, loans, and interest rates
- Making responsible digital payment and investment choices
By designing with these personas in mind, FINMAN+ ensures that every scenario feels authentic, relatable, and impactful.
From Research to Real Impact
The persona-based approach doesn’t stop at design – it continues throughout testing and evaluation. When the training materials are piloted in 2026, feedback from real learners will be used to refine and validate the personas, ensuring they evolve with actual needs.
Through this dynamic process, FINMAN+ aims to make financial literacy more inclusive, more practical, and more human – supporting young Europeans in building sustainable financial habits for life.
