Experience professional orientation in a new way: escape rooms for young talents!

Experience professional orientation in a new way: escape rooms for young talents!

An innovative project in the Ems-Vechte region of the future shows promising approaches to career orientation for young people. The project entitled “Escape Room Settings in Career Orientation” (ErinBO) aims to inspire those interested in apprenticeships in the plastics industry in a playful way. The University of Osnabrück is the lead project sponsor and works closely with the Ems-Axis plastics network and regional companies.

How uni-osnabrueck.de reports, the project is being supported by the Lower Saxony Regional Development Ministry with around 85,000 euros from EU funds. The funding decision was handed over by Regional Development Minister Wiebke Osigus. The total costs of the project amount to 211,715.56 euros, with the funding applied for through the Ems-Vechte Future Fund amounting to 84,686.22 euros.

The focus on the plastics industry

The project duration extends from May 2025 to April 2028. The aim of the project is to develop innovative solutions to combat the shortage of skilled workers in the plastics industry. The escape room scenarios are intended to provide practical insights into apprenticeships and plastics processing processes. The development of stationary escape room settings is planned as an interactive learning environment in order to actively involve students in the career orientation process. These new methods should then be transferred to other industries.

In this context futureregion-ems-vechte.de found that the University of Osnabrück is also providing scientific support to examine the effectiveness of the career orientation measure. The findings from this study are intended to contribute to the continuous development of this form of career orientation.

Inclusion of future specialists

The escape rooms developed as part of this project are not just simple games. Rather, they are intended to involve the participants in practical challenges. This is in line with the objectives of escape2stay.eu, where escape rooms are also designed for other training paths such as mechatronics, electronics and the hospitality industry.

The games within these escape rooms are intended to promote soft skills such as teamwork, flexibility, creativity, ambition and initiative. These skills are crucial for your professional future and for the requirements of the 21st century. Young people should be encouraged to think critically about their career options and to develop creative solutions.

Overall, the ErinBO project not only shows the potential of playful approaches to career orientation, but also comprehensive networking between educational institutions, companies and the public sector. With a budget of up to five to eight million euros per region, as part of the “Future Regions of Lower Saxony” program, work will be carried out on the sustainable development of the regional economy until 2028.