Output identification 07

Strategy for the Adoption/Exploitation of

the EMPLOY Serious Game of Digital

Skill Building in School Education

“Everyone has the right to education and to have access to

vocational and continuing training.” Article 14 of the EU Charter

of Fundamental Rights.

Background

EMPLOY Project aims at developing a strategy able to ease the

wide deployment of the serious game and support further digital

skills development in school education.

There are two main direction to be followed:

- Internally aiming at the enhancement of operations within

partner organizations through sustainable activities,

- Externally thorough the adoption of project intellectual

outcomes by the wider sectors of school education.

Introduction

This strategy represents a fundamental step for the development of

the project outcomes.

The EMPLOY project addressed the development of digital skills

among young learners with the objective of enhancing their future

employment opportunities in innovation-related sectors that are

expected by policy makers to drive economic growth. Digital skills

are considered among the basic and transversal competencies that

are necessary in wide economic sectors and as such must be

developed among individuals with diverse professional and career

aspirations, independently of area. It also promotes the strategic

deployment of ICT in education as a learning tool, and the

development of ICT applications for learning and the integration of

digital tools as complementary educational content within wider,

blended learning and teaching processes. The integration of

proposed technology and pedagogies offered learning benefits to

both students and teachers by enhancing motivation, promoting

long-term engagement with the learning process, providing timely

and constructive feedback, and promoting critical and

entrepreneurial thinking mind sets.

In defining the strategy to be adopted, the labor market situation

must be taken into account. In fact, over time it requires even more

transferrable and cross-cutting skills, especially applied to the ICT

field. Education and training have a crucial role to play in meeting

the many socio-economic, demographic, environmental and

technological challenges facing Europe and its citizens today and in

the years ahead.

Looking at the European Strategy efficient investment in human

capital through education and training systems is its most relevant

component, to deliver the high levels of sustainable, knowledge-

based growth and jobs that lie at the heart of the Lisbon strategy, at

the same time as promoting personal fulfilment, social cohesion and

active citizenship.1

European cooperation in education and training for the period up to

2020 should be established in the context of a strategic framework

spanning education and training systems as a whole in a lifelong

learning perspective. Indeed, lifelong learning should be regarded

as a fundamental principle underpinning the entire framework,

which is designed to cover learning in all contexts — whether

formal, non-formal or informal — and at all levels: from early

childhood education and schools through to higher education,

vocational education and training and adult learning.

Specifically, the framework should address the following four

strategic objectives:

1 Council conclusions of 12 May 2009 on a strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training ( ET 2020 ), OJ C 119, 28.5.2009, p. 2–10 (BG, ES, CS, DA, DE, ET, EL, EN, FR, IT, LV, LT, HU, MT, NL, PL, PT, RO, SK, SL, FI, SV) http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:52009XG0528(01)

1. Making lifelong learning and mobility a reality;

2. Improving the quality and efficiency of education and training;

3. Promoting equity, social cohesion and active citizenship;

4. Enhancing creativity and innovation, including

entrepreneurship, at all levels of education and training.

The periodic monitoring of progress towards a set objective

provides an essential contribution towards evidence-based policy

making. The strategic objectives outlined above should accordingly

be accompanied by indicators and by reference levels for European

average performance (‘European benchmarks’). Building on the

existing benchmarks, these will help to measure at European level

the overall progress made and to show what has been achieved.

Given the current European strategy, the 6 priorities for the 2016-

2020 period are:

relevant and high-quality skills and competences for

employability, innovation, active citizenship and well-being

(e.g. creativity, sense of initiative and critical thinking);

inclusive education (i.e. including the increasing diversity of

learners), equality, non-discrimination and the promotion of

civic competences (e.g. mutual understanding and

democratic values);

open and innovative education and training, including fully

embracing the digital era;

strong support for educators (e.g. improved recruitment,

selection and training processes as well as continuing

professional development);

transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications to

facilitate learning and labor mobility (e.g. by means of the

European quality reference framework);

sustainable investment (including exploring the potential of

the investment plan for Europe), performance and efficiency

of education and training systems.2

The European Strategy aims at implementing four main points:

1. The first European Strategic objective consists of making

lifelong learning and mobility a reality. Current changing

economic and social circumstances subsequent to the

demographic increase level led to the need to update and

develop new advanced skills in line with a lifelong approach to

an education able to be more responsive to world changes and

challenges. While new initiatives in the field of lifelong learning

may be developed to reflect future challenges, further progress

with ongoing initiatives is still required, especially in

implementing coherent and comprehensive lifelong learning

strategies. In particular, the development of national

qualifications frameworks based on relevant learning outcomes

and their link to the European Qualifications Framework is

needed to be ensured, through flexible learning pathways. A

certain degree of adaptability is required in the process.

2. In order to achieve the second strategic objective - Improving

the quality and efficiency of education and training -, high

quality education and training systems are crucial for Europe's

success and for enhancing employability. Ensuring the

acquisition of key competences by everyone is the fundamental

goal of this strategic objective, while developing the excellence

and attractiveness at all levels of education and training that will

allow Europe to retain a strong global role. To achieve this on a

sustainable basis, greater attention needs to be paid to raising

the level of basic skills such as literacy and numeracy, making

mathematics, science and technology more attractive and to

strengthening linguistic competences. At the same time, there is

2Council conclusions of 12 May 2009 on a strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training ( ET 2020 ), OJ C 119, 28.5.2009, p. 2–10 (BG, ES, CS, DA, DE, ET, EL, EN, FR, IT, LV, LT, HU, MT, NL, PL, PT, RO, SK, SL, FI, SV) http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:52009XG0528(01)

a need to ensure high quality teaching, to provide adequate

initial teacher education, continuous professional development

for teachers and trainers, and to make teaching an attractive

career-choice. It is also important to improve the governance

and leadership of education and training institutions, and to

develop effective quality assurance systems. High quality will

only be achieved through the efficient and sustainable use of

resources — both public and private, as appropriate — and

through the promotion of evidence-based policy and practice in

education and training.

3. The third Strategic objective consists of promoting equity,

social cohesion and active citizenship. Looking at the

fundamental role of education in citizens’ life, education and

training policy should enable all citizens to acquire, update and

develop over a lifetime both job-specific skills and the key

competences needed for their employability and to foster further

learning, active citizenship and intercultural dialogue.

In addition, these improvement would have a positive impact on

educational disadvantage cases, providing high quality since

early childhood education steps, promoting so an inclusive

education model. Education and training systems should aim to

ensure that all learners — including those from disadvantaged

backgrounds, those with special needs and migrants —

complete their education, including, where appropriate, through

second-chance education and the provision of more

personalized learning. Education should promote intercultural

competences, democratic values and respect for fundamental

rights and the environment, as well as combat all forms of

discrimination, equipping all young people to interact positively

with their peers from diverse backgrounds.

4. Finally, the last strategic objective aims at enhancing creativity

and innovation, including entrepreneurship, at all levels of

education and training. In particular, EMPLOY project would

benefited from this approach, given the potential connection

with the entrepreneurial domain: being EMPLOY focused on

digital skills acquisition and development through an intuition

process, it would result of outstanding interest for companies

assessment in future. Moreover, EMPLOY serious game could

be improved in schools and through schools piloting and testing,

to enhance additional tools that could be relevant for youth

generations’ prospected working environment.

As well as engendering personal fulfilment, creativity constitutes a

prime source of innovation, which in turn is acknowledged as one

of the key drivers of sustainable economic development. Creativity

and innovation are crucial to enterprise development and to

Europe's ability to compete internationally. A first challenge is to

promote the acquisition by all citizens of transversal key

competences such as digital competence, learning to learn, a sense

of initiative and entrepreneurship, and cultural awareness. A second

challenge is to ensure a fully functioning knowledge triangle of

education-research-innovation. Partnership between the world of

enterprise and different levels and sectors of education, training and

research can help to ensure a better focus on the skills and

competences required in the labor market and on fostering

innovation and entrepreneurship in all forms of learning. Broader

learning communities, involving representatives of civil society and

other stakeholders, should be promoted with a view to creating a

climate conducive to creativity and better reconciling professional

and social needs, as well as individual well-being.

EMPLOY development according to the EU guidelines

and strategic framework

EMPLOY is innovative by addressing the issue of digital skill

building among individuals that are at risk of social exclusion early

in life, in primary and lower secondary school, through activities

that are linked to real world needs. By addressing digital skill

development among youngsters aged 10 to 15, the project aimed at

preventing the issue of less than adequate digital skills among

individuals at risk of social exclusion, which is often a result of

reduced access to learning opportunities and services, from ever

arising, thus promoting equity and inclusion in education. The

project promoted the broadening of career options for individuals at

risk of exclusion by raising awareness on professional profiles that

will be in demand in the coming years and by building the skills

that are necessary for entering the knowledge economy by:

a) Increasing access to learning resources through openly

available serious games;

b) Empowering learners to take control of their lives by

addressing core digital competencies early, in school

education;

c) Deploying and evaluating serious games as learning tools

towards building skills among individuals at risk of social

exclusion that will enhance their employability and as a

result their capacity to be socially included and civically

active;

d) Raising awareness on broadened professional development

paths related to innovation.

The project used ICT in a strategic manner by introducing serious

gaming as a means for exposing young learners to activities that

simulate the real world but are age appropriate. Research shows that

students remember only 10% of what they read; 20% of what they

hear; 30% if they see visuals; 50% if they watch someone doing

something and explaining it; and 90% of what they do themselves,

even only as a simulation. There is a wide consensus in the

scientific community on the educational value of serious games

towards enhancing motivation, engagement with learning processes,

and knowledge support.

Strategy

KEY STRATEGY PRINCIPLES: The project opens up to the

development of a series of actions for the integration of

fundamental critical, creative and transversal skills. There is a

needfor multiple stakeholders to adopt leadership roles in

attaining the Strategy and this will be essential in achieving success

by 2020, as expected by the European Union strategy on Education.

These objectives and the entire strategy are underpinned by five key

principles, identified during the consultation and research phase.

These principles are listed below and are designed to ensure that

school authorities, school leaders and all key stakeholders play a

proactive role in enhancing our education system by integrating

ICT more effectively. The Strategy recognizes that schools are at

different stages of their journey towards ICT integration and there is

an acknowledgment that a one-size-fits-all approach will not

achieve success. In consideration of this, the Strategy will support

schools to identify where they are on this journey and will provide a

range of supports to assist them move ICT integration forward over

the next years.

Principle Descriptor

1. A Constructivist

Pedagogical

Orientationunderpin

ning the embedding

of ICT in

schools.

A constructivist

pedagogical

orientation

supportsteachers

in effectively

using ICT with

theirstudents i.e.

learners are

actively

involved in

aprocess of

determining

meaning and

knowledge for

themselves.

2. The use of ICT in

teaching, learning

andassessment can

enhance the learning

experiences of all

students.

ICT plays an

important role

in

supportinginclus

ion and

diversity for all

learners by

enhancing

learning

opportunities for

all

students.

3. The use of ICT in

teaching, learning

andassessment is

embedded in

schoolcurricula,

Department policies

and teacher

education.

The Department

and its agencies

will playa

proactive role in

implementing

the

DigitalStrategy

for Schools.

4. ICT is used in an

ethical and

responsibleway.

Schools and the

Department

enable all users

touse ICT in an

ethical and safe

way.

5. ICT Planning is

required to ensure

ICTintegration in

teaching, learning

and Assessment.

All levels of the

education

system are

engagedin

inclusive

planning for the

effective

integration

of ICT.

7.1-7.2 EMPLOY didactical framework: identification of

outcomes to be promoted for post-project adoption and

methodologies

This section discusses the EMPLOY outcomes that are considered

exploitable and can be the target of a post-project adoption strategy.

The exploitable outcomes include: the EMPLOY didactical

framework andits learning suite that applies in practice the

proposed learning methodologies.

EMPLOY proposes a learning intervention that exploits new

technologies and uses a didactical framework which builds on

explorative learning methodologies, problem-based learning, and

analytical thinking practices.

The analysis of country practices through the literature

demonstrates that digital skills development courses are part of

school curricula in Greece, Turkey, Estonia, and France. Digital

skill development is not included at all in curricula in Italy.

Furthermore, the school curricula often focus on building specific

competences in relation to using popular tools and services without

making links to how these skills may be deployed in professional

settings. In other words, digital skill building at school is not taking

into account industry needs, thus missing an opportunity to prepare

learners for becoming effectively engaged in the ICT sector and

ICT using sectors. This demonstrates that there is a gap in school

education in Europe in relation to building digital skills for

employment, thus making the EMPLOY project objectives and

activities highly relevant.

In addition, the analysis of country practices through the literature

demonstrates that insufficient services and initiatives are in place

for the lifelong development of educator skills on building their

students digital literacy. This is the result of many factors. Some

include the lack of time availability for teachers to attend training.

Others include the fact that teachers, when given the opportunity to

engage in training, may choose to follow different subjects that they

feel are more applicable in the school practices. This is partly the

result of the lack of technical infrastructure in schools in the form of

computer labs where digital skills may be developed. In other

words, teachers may feel that even if they did have the skills to

teach digital competencies they still do not have access to up-to-

date equipment at the schools for effectively delivering training.

Another challenge is the lack of effective technical support for

schools in relation to using digital equipment in learning.

A blended learning design that embodies on-line experimentation,

and class collaboration towards collective knowledge building in a

group of learners. End-to-end learning activities are designed for

enhancing existing school practices by integrating virtual

applications into the current instructional flow, including

fundamental principles concerning the development of transversal

learning skills, in particular analytical and critical thinking,

creative learning, entrepreneurial learning, work in groups as well

as independently. These skills are applicable horizontally to all

subject areas and help learners excel in school as well as later in the

professional career. Therefore, the EMPLOY practice represents a

great basis for a first step into a real working environment

dimension.

More specifically, the proposed didactical framework uses inquiries

and problem-solving to help learners:

Identify the objectives of a given problem;

Identify input parameters and value ranges;

Identify the resources available for solving the

problem;

Experiment with and analyze alternative

implementation solutions;

Critically compose an algorithmic solution;

Visualize feedback on the actual effects of a particular

implementation route;

Compare their solution to those of peer learners in the

context of class collaboration;

Reflect upon optimal and less optimal solutions.

The methodology encourages an interactive and step-wise

development of a solution allowing learners to learn by their

mistakes, correct errors, and build incrementally their analytical

thinking capacity.

7.3. EMPLOY Serious Game Designing

EMPLOY targets directly professionals and ICT educators with the

objective of develop digital skills among young learners in order of

enhancing their future employment opportunities in innovation-

related sectors. The specific interests and expected learning benefits

in relation to each group are:

Primary and secondary school students interested in developing ICT

skills. Benefits of this group include enhanced opportunities on job

market.

Primary and secondary school teachers interested in implementing

innovative teaching methods. Benefits of this group are related with

enriching their teaching methods with game based learning and

gamification methods.

In addition, the following groups benefit indirectly by EMPLOY

activities and outcomes, including analyses results, services, and

evaluation results:

Policy makers in education stand to gain from the analysis of the

current practices in the field in relation to ICT education as well as

ICT education at the tertiary level. They can benefit from

evaluation results on the effectiveness and impact of the validation

of the EMPLOY tools and pedagogical approaches in the context of

lifelong professional education.

Similarly, educational and software services industry actors stand to

gain from the same outcomes for enriching their data and

information on market trends and stakeholder interests and needs.

The main goal is reproducing in the serious game all the in-game

functionalities mimicking real everyday job life ones. For the

precise purpose of the serious game, the simulation will reproduce

basic and easy and repetitive tasks.

The design of the actual in-game scenario is crucial to do something

creative and entertaining, to involve young students’ attention.

The sections included are: web browser, social media, word

processor, spreadsheet software, presentation software, image

editor, instant messaging software, and e-mail software.

All the section have been created in English, producing the contents

mimicking possible combinations of usability to simulate tasks to

be achieved at the desk in an ordinary job day. Then, the contents

have been translated into all the other languages of the project

(Turkish, French, Estonian, Greek and Italian).

Each game in the EMPLOY Project corresponds to the work life of

an employee or entrepreneur or any worker faced with having to

deal with computers and digital challenges in their everyday work

life. The goal of the game is to keep playing, which in game terms

means keep working. A savegame will be automatically created at

the end of every in-game day, in order to allow the player to go

back in time if they need or want to do so. At the beginning of

every in game day, the player will start at a desk or in an outdoor

environment. The tasks will be exactly similar in both cases, the

main difference being that in the outdoor environment the player

will have to use mobile devices instead of computers to complete

the assigned tasks. Every in-game working day will last the exact

same real time duration. Once the player arrives in the daily

environment, he/she will be presented a general briefing for the day.

There will be an infinite number of tasks presented to the player, in

a serial fashion. The next task is only presented once the last one

has been completed.

Fig. 1. The very first draft design of the game interface, with a zone listing tasks

(left), one describing in detail the task (up), and one where the task takes place

(center).

The player will be able to drag and drop important information

from the task given to his/her work environment in order to achieve

the task. For example, if the task is to send an email, the body,

subject, recipients of the email can be dragged and dropped from

the task zone to the work environment zone, here an email client.

The tasks could be presented by colleagues or clients, either in the

flesh if the player is in an indoor environment or through email or

text messaging if the player is outdoors.

Some task might require a combination of different skills. For

example if an email is to be sent to the CEO of a company the

player doesn’t have the email address of, then it means that the

player will need to do an Internet research in order to find it.

Alternatively, the user could also use instant messaging to ask a

colleague. Several approaches could be possible to solve a certain

given task. As the whole game is based on time performance, the

amount of time each sub-task and task will take has to be carefully

weighed for game balancing purposes.

A visual and/or audio cue will signal in advance the end of the in-

game work time. Once it is over, the player environment freezes

and a new screen appear, summing up the performance of the day.

The daily summary of the players’ successes and failure could be

presented either as a detailed lists of all tasks undertaken or in a

more simple fashion a screen to transform each success into a credit

in the form of the game internal currency. Each failure could be

transformed into a debit of in-game currency, but this might be a bit

harsh as it is a double punishment. After the summary of the

player’s daily action, a certain amount of in-game currency will be

deducted from the player’s account. The screen detailing the

successes and failures and the one summing up the daily costs could

be merged into one.

This means that the players are obliged to succeed in a minimum

amount of tasks per day; the exact number of those successful tasks

will be ironed out during a game balancing phase later on during the

game development.

Fig. 2. A later version of the game design, where the three zones described in

figure 1 are still present but blend better into the environment

Education Digital Skills for Employability and Social Inclusion - EMPLOY Project 2015-1-TR01-KA201-021424KA2 - Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices Strategic Partnerships for School

Dissemination

The proposition of the report to follow, is based on a detailed table to fill in

throughout the 2 years of the projects that we can find in the annexes of the

project.

The monitoring has been organised through levels of dissemination: local,

regional, national, European and international.

At each European meetings, the exchanges of best practices for dissemination

were discussed and approved.

The Social media for Employ were used through Facebook, Twitter and the

website.

The monitoring has be done by each partner, and then been centralised through

the consortium and the dissemination partner.

The monitoring has been written in different categories of activities inside or

outside the organisation, for instance:

Face-to-face activities

Internet Based activities

Paper based activities

Performance activities

The press is a channel of dissemination, online or on paper.

Partners from each country participating in the EMPLOY project

organizedseveral national dissemination activities especially targeted to

education and otherIT institutions. The activities should be tailored to the

national context and include conferences, workshops, training events, briefings,

meetings, press releases and email bulletins.

7.5EMPLOY evaluation in all partner countriesEducational effectiveness of serious games in specific learning contexts still

needs to be tested. Serious games evaluation efforts are so far scattered and no

common evaluation approach appears to be broadly adopted. Often, failure of

serious games as learning tools is related to implementation that does not

Education Digital Skills for Employability and Social Inclusion - EMPLOY Project 2015-1-TR01-KA201-021424KA2 - Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices Strategic Partnerships for School

address all aspects of serious games, i.e. pedagogical design, gaming design,

and user-game interaction design.

The evaluation of project activities and results will aim to: Ensure that the

project outcomes meet the needs of identified stakeholder groups Ensure that

project outcomes are completed according to the proposal work plan and are of

high quality Monitor project management and implementation in correlation

with the project proposal work plan and budget.

In particular, EMPLOY contributed to research related to serious gaming

evaluation in learning contexts by designing and executing an extensive

evaluation strategy for establishing the added value of the learning games.

- Game designing

By playing the game, the users of the software have been placed in an office

environment where they will need to solve daily tasks of varying difficulty. All

the tasks presented required a certain digital skill or a combination of several of

them to be performed adequately. Each in-game day corresponded to a certain

amount of game time and at the end of the game day in-game currency have

been earned according to the successes and failures of the players in the given

tasks. A certain amount of currency (fixed or variable according to some

events) have also been deduced from the players’ accounts every day for up-

keeping/maintenance/etc. purposes.

The overall goal of the game is being able to keep playing, with the earnings

from the successes in the daily tasks outweighing the general costs incurred.

The Unity engine and development tools have been used to create this game,

ensuring a multi-platform reach for the EMPLOY product. A 2D perspective

has been selected while retaining the full capacities of the 3D Unity Engine.

The game can be used both inside and outside of the classroom. The software

needs to be used in the context of a course, and its design has been adapted to

the constraints of classrooms and courses by warranting playtimes of various

length, anywhere between 5 minutes and several hours.

Each game in the EMPLOY Project corresponds to the work life of an

employee or entrepreneur or any worker faced with having to deal with

computers and digital challenges in their everyday work life. The goal of the

Education Digital Skills for Employability and Social Inclusion - EMPLOY Project 2015-1-TR01-KA201-021424KA2 - Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices Strategic Partnerships for School

game is to keep playing, which in game terms means keep working. A

savegame will be automatically created at the end of every in-game day, in

order to allow the player to go back in time if they need or want to do so. At

the beginning of every in game day, the player will start at a desk or in an

outdoor environment. The tasks will be exactly similar in both cases, the main

difference being that in the outdoor environment the player will have to use

mobile devices instead of computers to complete the assigned tasks. Every in-

game working day will last the exact same real time duration. Once the player

arrives in the daily environment, he/she will be presented a general briefing for

the day. There will be an infinite number of tasks presented to the player, in a

serial fashion. The next task is only presented once the last one has been

completed.

Each player simulates his/her first day of job in front of a desk.

The EMPLOY projects created an ad hoc methodology and specifically active,

explorative, and collaborative learning through serious games, for enhancing

key digital and STEM competencies of school learners so that they are in-line

with industry and market demands fostering employability. The framework

will take into account analyses on the training requirements of school learners

as well as needs for building the competencies of teachers and designed for

integration into existing school practices enriching learning experiences and

learning outcomes.

- Proof-of-concept serious game

The project consortium authored a proof-of-concept serious game for the

development of ICT skills among individuals at risk of exclusion. The game

drew inspiration from real-life activities that deploy ICT for work purposes and

built digital capacity among young learners in primary and lower secondary

education; the game interface have beenproduced in all languages represented

in the consortium through project partners, i.e. Turkish, Greek, Estonian,

French, and Italian, as well as in English to make it available for a larger

audience. An accompanying user guide on the proposed ICT-skill building

serious game, acting as a reference on game use; will be available in Turkish,

Greek, Estonian, French, and Italian, as well as in English.

Education Digital Skills for Employability and Social Inclusion - EMPLOY Project 2015-1-TR01-KA201-021424KA2 - Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices Strategic Partnerships for School

Instructional support content in the form of good practice videos facilitated the

integration of proposed methodologies and tools into existing school practices,

enriching learning for the benefit of the ultimate end-users, i.e. learners and

teachers.

7.5 Evaluation sitesThe EMPLOY project has been evaluated in each consortium country.

In Greece in the area of Thessaly, the tests have been realized at: the 2nd

Vocational School of Karditsa, the 5th High School of Karditsa, and the 3rd

High School of Trikala, covering 80 students, covering the age range of 15-18

years-old.

In Italy, 50 students aged 14-15 from the “Galileo Galilei” Vocational

Secondary School, with minimum informatics education, as they are all at the

first year course. This was highly useful in terms of impact evaluation to assess

the intuition skills and the learning methodology of the EMPLOY serious

game. Students enjoyed the experience and were effectively able to use the

whole game, opening to internal competition and giving their feedbacks on the

usability and working desk experience. Many of them, for example, had never

tried to send emails in advance.

In France,

Results from all schools:

- Students actively engaged themselves in the EMPLOY serious game, an

developing an individual and collective overall experience on the game

platform, blending both informatics and transversal skills, in which they

directly tested the positive impact for their future employability

opportunities.

- Students shared their observations and feedbacks with teachers, discussing

in class the possible improvements. The latter have been always collected

and taken into consideration for future updating versions of the serious

game.

Education Digital Skills for Employability and Social Inclusion - EMPLOY Project 2015-1-TR01-KA201-021424KA2 - Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices Strategic Partnerships for School

- Students have been exposed to the specific learning methodology

developed through the game.

- Teachers took part to the first evaluation of the pilot version of the serious

game, and they provided feedbacks that allow to improve the initial

malfunctioning in the system. Teachers also cooperated with the

implementation team, fostering the relevance, acceptance, and effectiveness

of the EMPLOY learning process to strengthen digital skills, as a

fundamental basis and acquired result among young students for their

future employability.

7.6 Leveraging outcomes through use in additional learning scenarios and

actors

Given the outstanding importance of EMPLOY focus on digital skills

development, its adaptation through additional learning settings and activities.

In particular, it would be interesting to develop the serious game or any other

evolutionary format in partnerships with industries. This cooperation would

follow two main scopes: 1. Modeling the game (or its variation) taking into

consideration the skills required by industries in the labor market, including in

the game new ways to test youth generations’ abilities and attitudes; 2.

Facilitate the meeting process between offer and request of job profile in the

labor market.

An update of the current version with innovative and additional tools or

variations could offer the opportunity to help students develop their own

interpersonal skills, including also specific team-building abilities. Both

students (meant as prospected workers) and industries would benefit from the

improvement of working relationship management skills, in combination with

more technical abilities, such as the distinction between managing and drafting

an e-mail to be sent to a friend or to a colleague/supervisor.

Under the ethical perspective, deepening individual responsibility while using

internet would represent an asset in the development of further stages of the

Education Digital Skills for Employability and Social Inclusion - EMPLOY Project 2015-1-TR01-KA201-021424KA2 - Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices Strategic Partnerships for School

project. Such approach would be beneficial for students both as individual and

as a future worker.