The Concept

Job Services Australia (JSA) providers contracted by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), already run in-house training sessions to assist unemployed adults in maintaining their employability skills and knowledge to remain competitive within the current labor market.

Whilst idyllically, every person who walks through a JSA’s doors would be eligible to participate in this necessary training free of charge, unfortunately with the current budgetary constraints enforced by a rigid Federal governed contract, this is not always the case. 

Henceforth, the notion of utilizing technologies; perhaps such as PowerPoint and online hosting, to create a low cost, high volume usage e-training solution was explored. As a result, the following concept for the game ‘Hired or Fired?’ was created.

The Game

‘Hired or Fired?’ is an online hosted, e-training game that aims to assist unemployed adults in updating and maintaining their employability skills and knowledge to remain competitive and employable in the constant evolving labor market.

Consisting of 4 key employability knowledge and skill areas:

• Resume Know How
• Interview Skills
• Personal Presentation
• Finding Jobs

the game consists of a series of individual interactive activities; each activity taking the learner no more than 5 minutes to complete.

As each activity is completed, the learner will accumulate points which tally up to become their employability score. 

Recognizing that adult learners come into the e-training with previous knowledge and skills, not all activities are required to be completed by the learner to successfully complete the game and build up their employability score.

 

The activities required for successful completion of the game are determined by an in-game, simple quiz that assesses the currency of the learner’s prior skills and knowledge and awards employability points for these without the need to complete the activities. 

The overall aim of the game is to achieve the highest employability score possible, as the higher the score, the more employable you appear; and the closer you are to being hired!