The E-SCAPE project’s main objective was to design and apply a pedagogical approach which focus on the identification of selected “teachable” soft desirable skills, their enrichment with academic sources as well as real-world cases and their incorporation into the teaching process of HE via the assistance of Game learning the specific objectives of the project were: • To reinforce the employability skills of HE students and graduates • To upgrade the training methods of HE offered modules • To upgrade the demands of the labor market • To reinforce the link of HE institutions and labor market actors • To foster digital skills of the target groups through the provision of an innovative 3D virtual world learning environment in where they can perform gamified activities The project addressed two main target groups: - HE students from all levels (junior, senior, master, Ph.D.), and graduates - HE educator, Career guidance experts (such as tutors, mentors, internship / business liaison coordinators).
HE institutions (HEI) have the mission to equip young people with the right skills. But studies of graduates’ employability reveal the gap in highly demanded transferable skills such as creativity, problem solving, resilience, and flexibility. This gap is defined as skills mismatch between skills and jobs which shows that HEI isn’t providing the skills demanded in the “labor market”. Equally interested is the fact that those soft skills that are more highly on demand nowadays are “learnable. Those finding raised questions about the role HEI should play in preparing students for the graduate employment market and how they can strengthen their collaboration with career guidance experts (CGE) in equipping students with not only the technical skills but soft skills as well. One possible approach will be the collaboration of HEI with CGE aiming at selecting “teachable” soft skills and incorporate them in the teaching methods via ICT tools. One promising type of serious game is the scenario-based game in where learners progress through a scenario, making decisions and taking actions as they go aiming at succeeding. An effective game-based learning tool to apply the scenario-based game in a form of escape rooms is the 3D VWLP (OpenSim).