"Game4U"
Start date: Jan 5, 2015,
End date: Sep 4, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
CONTEXT:
Five million youth are unemployed in the EU which means one in five young people in Europe cannot find a job today (source: EUcommunity employment policies). One of the four main objectives of the Commission to tackle unemployment is developing skills that are relevant to the labour market. The lack of quality opportunities threatens an increasing number of young people with a sense of exclusion. The transition from education to independence and a place in the world of work is becoming longer and more precarious. And those with the fewest skills or the fewer opportunities are most at risk.
Non-formal teaching methods can contribute to building young people’s knowledge and skills and give them an understanding what it requires to seek and hold down a job or to become an entrepreneur. It makes them more employable and gets them back on track, in particular those who are marginalized or discriminated against and those who lack self-confidence. It also contributes to achieving social cohesion in society by the inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities.
Youth engagement - whether defined as active learning, the assumption of meaningful responsibilities, opportunities for choice and voice, or actions that have real impacts - is central to, and an important product of, education reform. Research demonstrates that young people learn best when they are given an opportunity to take on active roles, have opportunities to make meaningful choices, and become contributors and change makers.
Brief description of the project:
The project with five countries (Sweden, Spain, Turkey, Czech republic and Belarus), focuses on the development of an innovative non-formal game based education simulation tool to enhance and improve communication and presentation skills with a focus on entrepreneurship for young people and through play and practice, teach them basic presentation and communication skills with a focus on finding employment or become an entrepreneur so they can be applied effectively in real life, in particular enhancing their self-confidence in presenting themselves thus increasing their chances of finding and maintaining suitable employment and abilities to communicate in an effective way. The consortium bring different skills to the project ranging from technical, pedagogic, professional to project management.
It will be an interaction game that makes the social dimension the main element of one’s mechanism. In general games which are not competitive can be considered interaction games, where there are no adversaries to beat, but where the goal of the game is essentially merely fun and interaction among the participants.
The main objective is to create a learning environment (game/simulation) which simulates the communication and presentation skills process and stimulates the development of entrepreneurial attitudes and competences.
Activities during the project’s implementation:
1) Project meetings (5 international and several local);
2) Project communication and visibility actions (Facebook, Project web page, partner organization web pages, Skype and videoconferences)
3) Participant selection of youth to help assess the game in Sweden, Czech Republic, Spain, Turkey and Belarus
4) Local researches in Sweden, Czech Republic, Spain, Turkey and Belarus
5) Development of simulation game and materials as a non-formal tool;
6) Test concept with youth and discuss results (conceptual and Beta test);
7) Training for youth workers/trainers;
8) Production and distribution outcome materials – handbook, game (cards and/or boardgame
9) Evaluation and dissemination activities;
10) Video and Skype conferences.
The metodologies used are based on non-formal education tools.
The target groups to be addressed in the short (and long) term are in general young people (schoolleavers, disadvantaged, unemployed) in need of improving their communication and presentation skills as well as having entrepreneurial aspirations. Taking into account the type of learners on which (some of) the participating organisations are focusing, these include migrants and unemployed people.
The planned activities, working methods and the simulation game itself, which enhances communication, presentation and entrepreneurial competences, will no doubt contribute to the process of non-formal learning and to the promotion of social, professional and personal development competences of young people.
The exploitation activities of the project consortium will consist of promoting, advertising and disseminating the results achieved and outcomes developed within "Game4U". The objective is to convince as much youth education centres and any other institution related to education to introduce the s(t)imulation of communication, presentation and entrepreneurial attitudes into their curricula by training their teachers (training course) and by using "Game4U" products (game, handbook) in their management and commercial courses.