Labour orientation and career counselling are important for young migrants, as through career guidance, they can discover what their skills are and the best professional field for them.
Gamification is a good way to facilitate this career guidance, and this can be achieved by using escape rooms, a possibility developed by a consortium of four NGOs with the EU-funded project “UpGrad_Me 2.0”.
An escape room is a game in which a team of players have a given amount of time to discover and figure out clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks in one or more rooms in order to reach a specific goal. The aim is to escape from the room on time. The Up_Grad Me 2.0 Escape Rooms do the same thing, supporting young migrants to discover and improve their preferred skills while playing online. The aim of the project is to improve the employability of young migrants, newcomers, asylum seekers and refugees in the European Union through the promotion of labour orientation and career counselling by using games. Sometimes, young migrants take up any job available because of their pressing need to find employment. But what can be more satisfying than working in one’s preferred job, or at least being aware of one’s skills in order to better plan one’s career? The UpGrad_Me 2.0 escape rooms will lead young migrants to explore sixteen professional and life skills, identified in an earlier phase of the project, that will open doors for them, both in their careers and in their lives. The virtual escape rooms are set in a world where aliens are challenging participants to develop 16 skills including critical thinking, problem solving, and empathy, across beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels.
African Media Association Malta, Solidaridad Sin Fronteras in Spain, CARDET in Cyprus, and Arciragazzi Portici in Italy are the four NGOs managing the two-year project funded by Erasmus Plus.
