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!

The Assumption

Knowing how to get a job, and then, how to keep a job, is something which is often taken for granted. 

We often assume that as adults, whom have presumably endured some sort of formal schooling throughout our youthful days, we automatically possess the necessary skills and knowledge required to be considered employable.  We know what to put into a resume; we know what to wear (or what not to wear) to an interview; and we encompass the necessary skills and knowledge required to successfully seek out and obtain whatever type of employment it is that we’re after.  After all, they showed us in school and after that, it is assumed common adult knowledge, right?

Wrong!

With industries constantly changing and subsequently the nature of work constantly evolving, the skills and knowledge that we were taught back at school which constituted us as employable – even if it was just 5 or so years ago – may now be considered out-of-date by employers within the current labor market.
 

Furthermore, like any learnt knowledge or skill, if it hasn’t been put to practice for quite some time, aspects get forgotten.  Couple these missing pieces with technology evolution and subsequent changes to industries and business practices; is this still something we could reasonably assume to be common adult knowledge? 

Do resumes always look the same and contain the same type of information throughout the years?

Do cover letters still need to be indented at the start of every paragraph and hand written like they were 10 years ago?

And, is it still acceptable to simply walk in to a workplace off the street, ask for a job and expect to be working there the next day? 

The answer to these questions and the many others that adults looking for work these days may face is simply, no! 

Much like the evolution of our primary industries which ensure maintained competitiveness within a volatile market; as adults competing for sustainable, secure employment, in a constant changing labor market, we too need to continue to evolve and maintain our skills and knowledge to remain competitive and essentially employable. 

Now that is common knowledge! 

The Conundrum

Getting a job is like winning Tattslotto.  Sometimes you're lucky, sometimes you're not. 

Plus, its a case of being in the right place at the right time. 

And, of course, you need to know someone, who knows someone who works there; naturally! 

Or... is there something else going on here that not all of us have cottoned on to yet?