Learning housing skills with a Seppo game

Learning housing skills with a Seppo game

The Finnish Real Estate Management Federation (Isännöintiliitto) is a common expertise developer and an interest organisation for the property management sector and supports the staff of its member companies in their work with a wide range of information and advice services. 

Getting to know the rules of living in a condominium

Now, the association has developed a housing education game aimed at young people moving on their own for the first time. Where did the idea for the game come from? Ann-Mari Sandholm, Education and Communications Manager of the federation says that young people themselves have been telling that housing skills education is needed:

“Although schools teach home economics and financial skills, it seemed clear to us that many people were not familiar with the basics of housing, for example.”

The game teaches a wide range of topics, such as the roles and rules of a housing association, and the maintenance of one’s own home.

“The game starts from the basics of housing, such as the fact that you can’t throw away food in the sink but have to put it in the bio-waste, and it also deals with housing in general.” Ann-Mari says.

“Many young people have poor skills in living on their own. Traditionally these skills are learned at home, but of course, they can be learned wrongly and increasingly not at all. This creates inequality among young people,” Ann-Mari continues.

The game is built around a storyline where players jump into the journey of a young Havu, who is moving into their own home for the first time. Havu encounters everyday living problems that they have to solve by moving chronologically from room to room. Teachers can get their hands on the game using the instructions on the website of The Finnish Real Estate Management Federation and can then play it with their students. The game is free of charge for teachers.

A familiar and easy-to-use platform for schools

Seppo was chosen as the platform because many organisations and companies have created many free-to-use games for teachers in schools with Seppo before and the platform is therefore familiar to many schools.

“Seppo is a platform that many schools are already familiar with and therefore easy for teachers to use,” Ann-Mari says.

She also adds that the platform has also been easy to use for the game creators and the game is easy to update when needed.

“Working with Seppo has also been easy and we have always received quick answers to our questions,” Ann-Mari says.

The game has also received positive feedback from teachers:

“Whenever we speak at events or present the game, we get feedback that something like this really has a demand. It’s a very broad topic and some issues related to living in a housing association can bring up big emotions and even cause arguments, so understanding these issues is a big help for people moving in for the first time.” Ann-Mari reflects.

Teachers have also welcomed the fact that the game has all the information ready and they don’t have to learn it themselves beforehand.

The association has noticed that there is a need for a similar game among immigrants, for example. Therefore, further development of the game is planned, where the game could be played at least in Swedish and English.