Education, Training and Information: The Fifth Cooperative Principle

You and I know that credit unions are here to help their members and their community. This includes helping that community to build a strong financial foundation as individuals and as a whole. One of the ways credit unions do that is by offering education, training and information on financial goals, products and services.

What it means to you: Access to financial literacy tools and resources. Credit unions believe that education contributes to personal growth.

Brought to you once again by Synergy Credit Union in Saskatchewan. (The quote, that is)

Education, training and information: Power to the people

This goal is often called financial literacy – something I have written about before.

All of us have made financial mistakes or had moments where we have needed advice and guidance. This is something that credit unions and their dedicated staff can help with. And they do.

This help might include blog posts helping you set up a household budget, newsletter articles about the merits of TFSA vs RRSPs, or offering personal advice on how to begin investing – whatever members need.

Trust provides confidence

Credit union members know they get excellent service, advice included, from their credit unions. After all, on October 11 last year, Ipsos Reid offered:

“The overall Customer Service Excellence Award for 2022 among all financial institutions in the retail banking sector goes to Canada’s Credit Unions, an aggregate of individual Credit Unions across the country. This is the 18th consecutive year that Canada’s Credit Unions have received the award, reflecting the continuing high levels of service provided to their member bases.”

And after granting that honour eighteen years running, I think we can agree that members can trust their credit unions to give them the help and assistance they need. When it comes to figuring out how to set and keep their financial house in order, credit unions are there to help.

In addition to the advice you can get at your local credit union, the website Canada’s Credit Unions maintains a list of blog posts mostly aimed at offering basic financial advice to anyone interested. When I had a quick look while preparing this post, I saw titles like: