Educational Innovations in Financial Management Degree Programs

In recent years, there has been a growing demand for professional financial managers due to the sustainable development challenges set by the global economy, and sustainability goals of every single industrial enterprise or company. Financial managers are responsible for forecasting and planning the company strategy in interaction with other executives, therefore, it is important to focus on soft skills in curricula of Bachelor's and Master's degree programs in Financial Management. The universities, however, often concentrate on job-specific skills using traditional teaching methods such as lectures and seminars. The paper aims at investigating the benefits and drawbacks of educational innovations in teaching future financial managers. The objectives of the study include analyzing the role of interactive teaching methods in Financial Management curricula, describing and classifying these methods, and identifying soft skills to be developed through these methods. The paper gives recommendations related to introducing changes into the curricula for financial managers at different levels of education, including Bachelor's and Master's degrees programs based on the literature review, observation and case study of Financial Management degree programs at one of the universities. These recommendations include re-formulation of learning outcomes and introduction of new study courses into the curricula. The new study courses imply interactive collaborative teaching and learning methods in which students are engaged with the course material through discussions and are experientially involved in the learning process through doing things besides passive listening, thus developing both job-specific and soft skills. Further development of these courses will show their benefits and drawbacks.