The Young Apprentice – A More Complete Proposal for a Cross-Platform Project
The Young Apprentice is a cross-platform project that incorporates an eight episode BBC Three TV series and a series of online careers games with supporting guidance and advice.
The Television series will very much imitate the very successful BBC 1 series, The Apprentice. The significant difference lies in the fact that the ‘apprentices’ will all be aged between sixteen to eighteen and have left school with little or no qualifications. The series will look to give hope and inspiration to those participating and the viewers at home.
The online elements of the project will very much support and further the sentiments of TV series. The predominant feature of the service is a series of career simulation flash games. The games allow the user to sample a number of jobs in a fun and entertaining way whilst also testing there suitability to the job with a series of tasks that imitate those that you would come across in the world of work. The games will be limited in terms of graphics but will harness strong game play to become an addictive gaming experience like Championship Football Manager and Theme Park. The games’ attentional to detail and realistic nature is key and salaries, lifestyles, working environment and promotion time scales and working hours are all representative….. get promoted, sacked, hired and much more.
The service provides far more than just a fun flash game though. The user inputs there personal information, including grades/predicted grades, preferences of sector and location and strengths and weaknesses. The service uses this information to suggests a career path and the user can then try out a profession in the form of a flash game.
Each game tests the user on a number of different skills that are required in that job and records the users performance in each. Tasks will test in the fields of initiative, logical thinking, creativity, common sense, business acumen and team work and more. On completion (or during) of the game the user is presented with a summary page of there performance that suggests the aspects of the job in which they achieved and the areas which weren’t suited to them. If a fit with the job is successful then the site recommends courses, apprenticeships and jobs that are suited to the user, using there location, ability and other personal information. If not a correct fit for the user, the service uses the elements from the game that best fitted the users skills and ability to suggest a different career and a different flash game to try out the job. The whole user experience is supported by advice and information on what areas to improve on and how to achieve career goals.
The site would also hold a bank of ’Day in the Life of…’ video podcasts that portray a real working day in a chosen job.
In order to maximise usage potential and in particular use in schools, the service will be able on the internet. The service could be rolled out as a mobile phone application and would also ‘sticky’ alongside social networking sites.
Ideally the service would be adopted by local education authorities for use alongside the career guidance that they give. With this approach a large amount of the target audience (14-20) would certainly be exposed to the service and in the right place for further guidance from teachers. The television series would likely attract a wider demographic to the service, of 16-30 and the service would be designed to suit anyone of this age range wanting to embark on a new career.
User Scenario – 1
Meet James- Age17, Sixth Form Student, High achiever in Business Studies and the Arts
- James watched and enjoyed ‘The Young Apprentice’ and so visited the site to try out the job simulation games
- James can’t choose between a career in Business or a job working in the media
- He tries out the News Game and is met with tasks such as:
‘You are a Radio news reporter. Your boss (editor) has left you in charge of the bulletin in his absence, it’s all ready with 30 mins till air….. BUT you hear from a source that a bombs might have gone off ten minutes away from the station….’
Do you-
(a) Keep the same bulletin?
(b) send a reporter out on location to investigate?
(c) go and investigate yourself?
A simple flash sequence plays and James see’s his decisions carried out.
- James complete’s the task well. He enjoys the creativity and initiative and excitement involved but he’s not to keen on the hours and the relatively low salary that he’d earn. After giving this feedback and using the information the service already holds on him (Achieves highly in Business Studies) it recommends that he investigates a career in Marketing.
- James has no idea of what the job involves so tries out the Marketing simulation game and loves it. His task results reflect this.
- In the summary page the service recommends local higher education courses (in ranking order) and details the grade’s that James would need to achieve in order to attend each course. Also listed are Marketing companies that he should approach to gain experience before or during his time at University.
- James now feels in control of his future, he’s tried out the job and is confident that his existing skills in Business Studies and the Arts can be transferred into a career in Marketing. He knows where to go and study and even knows where he might want to work following University!
User Scenario - 2
- Meet Claire – 16, Soon to leave school with very few qualifications but she’s very sociable, is good with people and loves animals
- Claire was introduced to The Apprentice site by her career guidance teacher
- Claire doesn’t have clue what she wants to do when she leaves school and she knows that her options are quite limited
- She loves being around animals and is pleasantly surprised to find out that she can be an Animal Nursing assistant with her qualifications
- Claire tries out the Animal Nursing Assistant game;
She’s tested on her knowledge of animals and responsible for looking after sick animals and preparing them for surgery.
- Claire enjoys the game, it’s just like the Dogz game for the PC. She also enjoyed doing well in the tasks and she can see herself doing the job. The money isn’t great to start with but can get a lot better if she moves up the ranks to become a veterinary nurse.
- The site brings up courses and possible jobs that she could apply for and also details how long it might take her to become a veterinary nurse and where she could get the qualifications to take the step up.
It’s extremely helpful when reading treatments to have user journeys such as this: the who concept comes to life. It would be even better with a diagram that shows us what we use and see at each step.
You are right that this would have to be used in an educational context since it doesn’t sound as though the games are fun enough to play for the sake of it. In fact, they seem more like the sort of questions you would get asking in an interview (but that’s OK).