Seppo Game Makes Professional Growth Visible

Seppo Game Makes Professional Growth Visible For students and Teachers At Stadin Ammattiopisto Vocational School

Stadin ammattiopisto vocational college’s open study program Pelaamalla paremmaksi (translated as Play to Pro) is designed for learners who do not have ongoing studies in any school or who do not participate to working life. The program acts as a stepping stone to continue to further vocational studies or to working life.

Play to Pro uses Seppo as a means to motivate learners, and bring their progress on their professional skills and knowledge visible for themselves and for their teachers and employers. The concept is designed to meet the requests and needs of both students and companies.

Learners’ primary learning space is a real workplace. Skills and professional knowledge are proven through learning tasks built on Seppo platform. Seppo is also used as a venue to gather additional information to support the students’ professional skills and knowledge.

A cell phone is a learning device which anyone can carry along in their workplaces. It has an important role in enabling the learners’ to gain the required level of professional knowledge and skills, and in showing this, says Satu Hemming, one of the teachers who’ve created the program.

Professional reform frames every study program, whether it’s tourism, catering, healthcare or something else. The programs are built as Seppo games.

The game directs to autonomous decisions and active doing. In the exercises the learners show their skills as representatives of their own profession. The goal of each game task is to gain skills required in professional skills requirements’ criteria of a certain area in a very personalised level. The game brings visible professional growth to mastery. Learners receive points and personal feedback for each exercise according to professional skills requirements, also made visible to the learners.

Following one’s own progress in professional knowledge and skills is easy and very concrete. This has an important meaning for the learners’ motivation, states Satu Hemming.

In Seppo games the learners’ creativity and freedom of choice have a very important role. These also add motivation to perform the required tasks.

We encourage to creativity and self-expression in different forms inside the exercises. Learners can show their professional skills in ways that feel most natural for them, whether it’s in a video, audio, picture, text or even cartoon form. The important thing is that the skill level becomes visible, not how it’s shown, says Inka Koskinen, co-creator of the program.

The results gained with this concept are very successful. 90% of students that participate in the program continue to further professional studies or move to a profession, says Satu Hemming.

Stadin ammattiopisto vocational collage’s Play to Pro program is proving to effectively help prevent social exclusion with Seppo platform.