Life Capital gives students a safe place to meet adult life before it arrives. In a simulation led by a trainer or a prepared teacher, they budget, borrow, invest, take risks and negotiate, then talk through why they chose what they did. Ontario schools run it as a school club across the school year: shorter theory meetings, and full 5-hour simulations where the theory is practised.
School enquiries come from staff. In a school session students keep their own paper ledgers; nothing about them is recorded online. Privacy policy →
One school format: a club across the school year, with shorter theory meetings and full 5-hour simulations. In it students come to understand the value of money, the importance of time, the role of responsibility, the effect of financial decisions, and why relationships and teamwork matter. School teams can go on to the national tournament.
Students work with income, expenses, budgeting, borrowing, interest, emergency costs and trade-offs in a facilitated simulation. The Trainer facilitates the whole session, and students connect each decision in the simulation to a real personal-finance choice.
Students live through about forty simulated years: buying assets, starting a business, borrowing to invest and negotiating deals with each other while the market changes around them.
A club that runs the whole school year, led by a teacher prepared in the methodology (the preparation is taught in Ukrainian): shorter theory meetings, and full 5-hour simulations where the theory is practised. Students take turns as players, bankers and assistant trainers, and read their own balance sheets after each session.
School teams can play the Canadian national tournament (Carleton University in 2025, Ottawa again in March 2026), and the national winners go on to the international stage.
The simulation turns abstract ideas into personal experience. Students often leave wanting to learn more about business, improve their financial literacy, look at mathematics with fresh eyes, build stronger friendships and partnerships, and appreciate what their families do for them. Every session closes with 30 minutes in which the group names what it would change. Photographs from the Ottawa 2026 stage: © Maryna Shum Photography.
A school gets a PDF set and checklists on registration. Teachers who want to run the club themselves can go through the Trainer School, which is taught in Ukrainian.
| Format | Duration | Group Size | Educator Role | Facility Requirement | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| School club: shorter theory meetings and full 5-hour simulations | School year | 10–16 students | A teacher of the school, prepared in the methodology (taught in Ukrainian) | A room for the club, 1–2 tables | On request |
The club is led by a teacher of the school, and the teacher preparation is taught in Ukrainian. In an English-language Ontario school, a Life Capital Trainer leads the 5-hour simulations.
A browser version of Life Capital runs at lifecapital.evokira.com, in Ukrainian and English. It is a development address kept up by the team, so take it for what it is: a way to see how a turn works — the decisions, the ledger arithmetic, the events that land on you — in a few minutes, from a phone or a laptop.
It opens straight away, with no booking: play a few turns, and you will know whether the table version is worth a Saturday.
The five-hour session is where the rest of it lives: a paper ledger you fill in by hand, a Trainer leading and a Banker paying out and collecting the money, other players to negotiate with, and the debrief at the end where every player reads their own ledger out loud and says what each decision cost.
About forty years of adult financial life, played through in one sitting, in English or Ukrainian.
The full register of outside mentions, with every link and date, is on the press page.
Starting in the 2026–2027 school year, students who entered Grade 9 in 2025–2026 or later must meet Ontario’s Financial Literacy Graduation Requirement as part of compulsory Grade 10 Career Studies. The provincial requirement uses TVO-developed learning modules and assessment questions. Students have two attempts and must achieve at least 70%; the result counts for 5% of the Career Studies final grade.
Life Capital is independent of that provincial assessment. The requirement and the TVO modules stay with the school and the province. Life Capital adds experiential practice: students can practise budgeting, borrowing, investing, risk, trade-offs and financial decision-making in a facilitated environment before discussing how those choices apply outside the simulation.
Read our plain-language guide to the Ontario requirement →
Running a one-off session first? See our financial literacy workshops in Ottawa and the financial literacy program for teens.
En français : guide de l’exigence de 10e année
Official sources: Ontario — Financial literacy education in schools and Ontario Schools policy requirements.
No. The simulation carries its own arithmetic. A teacher who wants to lead a club takes the 7-hour starting training, which is taught in Ukrainian; in an English-language school a Life Capital Trainer leads the 5-hour simulations.
A certified Life Capital Trainer leads the session, and we name that trainer to the school before the date is set. For the rest of a board's checklist — a vulnerable sector check for the trainer, a certificate of insurance, a signed board agreement — write to info@lifecapital.ca before the booking is confirmed. We send what we hold for that trainer and that date, and we say plainly what has to be arranged first.
No digital student tracking or personal data is collected in school sessions. All accounting takes place in physical pencil ledgers owned solely by the student.
Schools write to us and we register the team for the next Canadian national tournament. The date and venue are announced for each season.
A standard classroom with tables. Each Life Capital kit holds the board, player ledgers, card decks, play money and chips.
The full price list, what a quote is built from and how a date is agreed are on the prices page.
No reply after two business days means the message did not reach us. Write to info@lifecapital.ca or call +1 613 621 1261.
Write to us with your grade, group size and timetable. We reply with how the club fits your timetable, the price for your school and what the school pack contains.
