TYCO(O)NSTRUCTOR: Mini-Games that Foster Entrepreneurial Competence for the Construction Sector Erasmus Project

Project Title

TYCO(O)NSTRUCTOR:
Mini-Games that Foster Entrepreneurial Competence for the Construction Sector

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Open and distance learning; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills

Project Summary

CONTEXT
There’s a growing recognition that entrepreneurship is critical for economic growth and employment and plays a vital role in developing more and/or more able entrepreneurs. The quality of having acquired sufficient entrepreneurial awareness and skills would substantially improve the flexibility and mobility of graduates of secondary VET for future construction professions. However, not everybody possesses the competence to achieve success as an entrepreneur, and furthermore these skills appear hard if not impossible to learn by more traditional training methods.

OBJECTIVES
Most effective approaches to develop entrepreneurship skills involve experiential and task-oriented learning from real business problems. The TYCON project proposes serious games as powerful didactical means for the acquisition of entrepreneurial competences for professional life in a changing and complex society. These learning benefits are enabled by the highly experiential, immersive, just-in-time and contextual nature of realistic gameplay based on high quality instructional design of learning scenarios. This pedagogically-founded and dedicated TYCON game (innovative key value 1) will be developed and provided in an integrated VET context with well thought-out training materials (innovative key value 2) and evaluation rubrics, that are to be derived from an accreditated and dedicated assessment framework (innovative key value 3). These conditions will guarantee broader uptake and sustainable use of these learning materials.

PARTICIPANTS
The project aims to deliver an integrated set of online/mobile serious mini-games (the TYCOONSTRUCTOR game) by using the metaphor of a virtual internship that would allow VET students (at 4th EQF qualification level) in construction to discover and explore important facets of entrepreneurship in context. Besides these students, other stakeholders targeted are: VET institutions/centres, local public bodies relevant for qualifications and VET, current students or apprentices, workers, companies, trainers, teacher trainers, professional colleagues, business entrepreneurs and social agents. Project partners, throughout several partnership projects, have developed a collection of high quality ICT applications that have showed their usefulness as a didactical resource to teach especially young workers from the building industry.

ACTIVITIES
Besides generic project outcomes, the main Intellectual Outputs will be composed thus:
IO1-Assessment framework entrepreneurial skills (lead: Coventry)
IO2: Case leads and context information (lead: CEAP)
IO3: Game design and pedagogical scenario (lead: WHTK)
IO4: Game development and implementation (lead: OUNL)
IO5: Pilot testing and dissemination (lead: CCIS)
IO6: Development training materials (lead: BZB)
IO7: Impact assurance and evaluation (Lead: FCL)

METHODOLOGY
The 4C-/ID model is applied for designing professional “whole tasks’, the EMERGO approach for designing the game elements, and the AR Learn platform for the agile prototyping and development of the mobile mini-games, methods proven and developed by the lead partner. The assessment framework will be worked out based on the SOCCES project, that was led by partner Coventry. National Agency Groups (NAG) will play a central role in raising commitment and agreement throughout participating countries. Professional accreditation of learning outcomes will be realized through various existing contexts and projects (e.g. REFORME and CPD), in which some project partners play a leading role and have extensive networks of stakeholders. Monitoring mechanisms for project management, risk management, quality assurance, impact evaluation, dissemination activities, and other more generic activities have been described in more detail throughout this proposal and are warranted.

RESULTS AND IMPACTS
This partnership has made great effort to achieve the maximum possible impact within the sector by designing strategic dissemination and endorsement activities and means with key agents and stakeholders, which have been described in more detail throughout this proposal. Main project results will be threefold: (1) A dedicated assessment framework for entrepreneurial awareness will be elaborated upon the SOCCES framework; (2) Dedicated education materials: a. An online/mobile serious game for VET students to explore and foster entrepreneurial awareness for the construction sector, and b. An interactive E-book or website for trainers/teachers on how to successfully implement the game in their curriculum; and (3) A common tool and approach for and shared accreditation for the participating countries that will, amongst other long term benefits: Increase transparency and mutual trust between VET systems, provide a Europe-wide training system, Ensure easy access to VET by offering Open Educational Resources, and Promote coherence between the worlds of work and training and decrease youth unemployment.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 276182,73 Eur

Project Coordinator

OPEN UNIVERSITEIT NEDERLAND & Country: NL

Project Partners

• SCUOLA COSTRUZIONI VICENZA ANDREA PALLADIO
• WESTDEUTSCHER HANDWERKSKAMMERTAG
• COVENTRY UNIVERSITY
• FUNDACION LABORAL DE LA CONSTRUCCION
• GOSPODARSKA ZBORNICA SLOVENIJE
• BILDUNGSZENTREN DES BAUGEWERBES EV