The project aimed at enhancing and developing the teaching staff’s pedagogical gamification skills by using new digital technologies. Through the enhanced skills the teaching staff has been and will be able to create learning content that is engaging and motivating as well as suitable for all levels of learners. Gamification, especially VR and immersive technologies, helps to produce more learner-centered content, inclusive learning experiences and responses to the needs of work life. Our concrete objectives were - to create a toolbox that helps teaching staff to implement gamification in their work - to develop six serious games that teach soft skills to the students - to create a piloting programme for gamification in VET.
Gamification and game-based learning are important innovations in the future of learning. We applied for this project to address the urgent need for building gamification capacity in VET. The actual implementation of game-based learning must be achieved through innovative and digital pedagogical approaches. The project responds to the evolving demands of 21st-century education by integrating gamified elements and game-based learning, which have proven to enhance motivation, engagement, and academic achievement among vocational learners. By exploring immersive technologies such as VR and the Metaverse, the project supports the development of versatile digital skills essential for preventing digital exclusion and improving learners’ labor market prospects. It also fosters and strengthens transversal and occupational competencies, as the games that were created in the project help students to develop their soft skills.