“The combination of real business challenges and gamification helped me start thinking outside the box”. – Joshua Heck, project participant.
On December 17, 2022, a large-scale closing conference of the “AGATE – A Gamified Approach to Youth Entrepreneurship Education” project took place in Yerevan organized by YCCD. The conference gathered more than 50 representatives of different civil society organizations, young people, youth workers, and relevant stakeholders who participated in various project stages. During the event, the participants shared their experiences of taking part in the AGATE project.
Joshua Heck was one of the participants of the project from Germany. He says that the project was an amazing opportunity for him to learn about Gamification, Entrepreneurship, explore the current opportunities and challenges for start-ups in Armenia, and on top of that discover the cultures of the participating countries.
“I took part in the AGATE youth exchange project in Aparan. Together with other participants from Armenia, Belarus, Estonia, and Portugal, we learned more about gamification with the help of different team-building activities and topic-related tasks, we tested the four AGATE games and evaluated them afterward. The one I liked the most is called “Train” because it shows the importance of adapting to changes in the environment by adjusting your own strategy was quite an interesting simulation of the real business world”.
Another participant from Germany was Frank Martin. Despite being a Social Science major and never thinking that he could enjoy learning about entrepreneurship, he had the best learning experience because of the gamified approach. He believes that even if you are not deep into entrepreneurship, this approach to learning entrepreneurship may interest everyone, just like what happened to him.
“The conference was a great chance for me to get to know more people who talked about the importance of gamification, especially in entrepreneurial education. Moreover, the games that were created during the project were introduced during the conference and it was an exciting moment for me”.
Nane Bezhanian from Armenia was also excited to share her experience of being a part of the project.
“The AGATE program is one of the best experiences I have had. During that interesting and useful week, we gained new knowledge, discovered new skills, and made new friends from Armenia and other countries”.
Supported by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union, the “AGATE – A Gamified Approach to Youth Entrepreneurship Education” project was implemented by Youth Cooperation Centre of Dilijan NGO (Armenia) in partnership with Society for Innovative Business Support (Belarus), NGO Youth Progress (Estonia), and Experimentáculo Associação Cultural (Portugal). It aimed at developing entrepreneurial skills and strengthening the capacity of young people by promoting a gamified approach to education.
