Get a Life – future work life simulation tool for university students

Finland Futures Research CentreLeena Jokinen, Johanna Ollila, Mikko Vähätalo

FFRC Conference Trends and Future of Sustainable Development 9-10.6. 2011

Methods explored

• Long-term future scenarios on the development and changes in working life

• An online simulation tool for students in the career-visioning process

• Pedagogical model and a virtual handbook for career counselors

• Combining these methods in a novel way in creating a future work life simulation

Scenario building process

• Futures table • Expert group produced variables• Key variables including: core competences, status, organization,

hierarchies, tradition and culture of work, societal, economic , technological and environmental drivers

• Project team formed 5 different scenarios• Partner organizations (public and private employers) were involved

and contributed to the scenario building process• Many partner and stakeholder groups have contributed to the

producing of futures images e.g. science fiction writers, teachers, students, employment professionals…

• Future news headlines based on each scenario

Get a Life! simulation

• Time frame: 2010-2030, location: Finland, users: tertiary level students

• Includes >900 simulated situations from the working world of the future

• Each situation entails several plausible choices• Choices lead to consequences so diverse that sometimes even a

proactive mind cannot anticipate• Initiates contemplation of one’s capabilities, life and the various

scenarios of the future work life• Unlike the real life, the simulation provides the user with an

opportunity to go back and choose differently and thus explore various future paths

Simulation as a futures tool

• Simulations are about future• Qualitative modelling• Explorative • Safe testing environment of opportunities and decisions• Reflection and contemplation• One-time experience or multiple uses• Possible to undo, redo• Individual and group processes• Possible to modify to other uses: public and corporate decision-

making, environmental scanning, scenario building and testing etc.

Learning in simulations

• Learning to:• Know (new information, cognitive processes), which is intertwined

with learning to: • Do (decision-making, choices based on cognitive processes) that

results in learning to:• Be (in a new, unprecedented situation)

• Simulation produces new situations of which the user hasn't any previous experience

• The user combines existing information and seeks likenesses using also others' experiences (friends, parents) and other information as reference and acts (=chooses) based on the combined knowledge.

Holistic and future-oriented approach to counseling

• Planning one’s own life and transition to the working world • Supports the student’s self-efficacy and the individual’s vocational

development in different stages of studies • Exploratory rather than normative model of decision-making

• Emphasis on alternative futures, happenstance, uncertainty, context

• Promoting critical reflection• Futures consciousness , independent thinking, reflection on one’s

capabilities

Work and career pathEducation path

Life path

Future

Scenario

s Goals:Meaningful career pathSelf-efficacy and personal choises Quality of life

plan

I learnI plan

I challenge

Counseling mentoring coaching

I reflect I develop

Get a Life -projectHAAGA-HELIAteam

The dynamic and holistic model for counseling

Contributions & further development of the tool

• Long-term future orientation contributes significantly to student career counseling theory and practices

• The career decision-making discourse is contributed by combining the facilitation of complex decision-making with stochastic perspectives

• Future work life simulation tool is a unique innovation and combines the contributions of various scientific frameworks

• Both the technical features and the contents of the simulation will be developed and further refined in a following project

• Changing perspective from national to international• Introducing localization possibilities (content-checking, terminology,

language)

Thank you!

More information: http://getalifehanke.wordpress.com/in-english/

Get a Life! simulation demo in English: http://getalife.hamk.fi