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The project aims to improve young adults’ digital skills to develop their participation in the workplace and reduce the digital divide creating social and economic exclusion for youngsters. It would be logical to assume that youngsters have aptitudes with digital devices and have less difficulty adapting their profile to digital transformation in the workplace. However, the findings from ICILS (International Computer and Information Literacy Study) state that young people don’t automatically acquire digital skills only through exposure to digital devices during their education.
In today’s world, where everything is connected through technology, teaching young adults’ digital skills isn’t just a choice; it is necessary for them to find jobs, start businesses, and help society progress, as around 90% of jobs in the European Union now require digital skills.
The project’s objective is also to develop youth workers’ competencies in teaching digital skills by creating a guide, a workshop on escape room creation and activity sheets. Educators must be adequately trained to improve youngsters’ digital literacy and prepare them for a digitally driven society. A PISA-based study from the OECD showed that educators who rely on teaching practices such as inquiry-based, project-based, problem-based or collaborative pedagogies tend to be more successful in integrating new technologies into their teaching (OECD, 2022).
According to Scott Nicholson in his book “Creating Engaging Escape Games for the Classroom”, “One of the reasons for [Escape Rooms’] popularity is that they are cooperative challenges that take place in the physical world, which gets players out from behind their screens and working with each other directly”.
By encouraging youngsters to collaborate towards a common goal and solve enigmas together, tapping into the variety of skills in the group, educators can help them unlock a better knowledge of the workplace and, ultimately, of the many opportunities they can have in digital entrepreneurship. Escape Rooms are suitable and relevant for education as they allow youngsters an immersive and engaging experience.