MyFutureLab is a project from the 1st semester in Strategic Design. The focus was to design a product with the motto "Education as Empowerment" and a three-phase plan that promises economic success. This balancing act between economy and design resulted in MyFutureLab. MyFutureLab is a sustainable orientation tool that shows you suitable career opportunities based on your interests, experiences, and skills throughout your life.
//PROBLEM
A changing (vocational) world
The world of work is in a state of flux. Traditional forms of organization are increasingly dissolving, and ever shorter innovation cycles and new technologies are ushering in paradigm shifts in all industries. Entirely new occupational fields are emerging and evoking completely new job profiles. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), 65% of children starting school in 2016 will work in jobs that do not exist today. The future working world seems to be less and less clear than in previous generations, where stable job profiles could be approached via fixed training paths. However, in a world of work where traditional sectors are increasingly dissolving and new ones are emerging quickly, a fixation on such rigid job profiles can lead to people having difficulty participating in the change itself. It is assumed that future occupations will increasingly result less from a specific task than from functional roles and a particular set of skills.
Future Skills
Future Skills describe individual abilities that will be needed more in the future. These describe, for example, how to deal with change, stress, and your own flexibility, but also how to deal with new technologies and the digital space. Due to increasingly intransparent and subject-specific job descriptions, the future of career guidance will more and more go in the direction of competencies. By describing the competencies, it is hoped to get a clearer picture of the professions and a more understandable basis for better orienting yourself when changing careers. Many experts, such as Sir Ken Robinson, have long called for these skills embedded in schools. However, low funding and inflexible structures in schools make it difficult to find a connection. Therefore, we decided to develop an independent system designed for upcoming school graduates. The aim is to prepare these graduates for the world of work and to help them find and learn the necessary skills for the future.
//THE CHALLENGE
Research & Interviews
To understand abstract problems in the transition to the world of work, we conducted numerous interviews. On the one hand, experts and people in different life situations were chosen as interview partners. The aim was to understand which fears and problems arise in these life situations. Therefore, our interviews ranged from school leavers and career-orientated people to employment and career changers. As experts, we have a futurologist of work, a founder of a company for new school concepts, and an educator who dealt with the transition from school to work. Through their expertise, we were able to gain a diverse insight into the world of work (of tomorrow) and were able to use this to form our service.
//THE PRODUCT
What is MyFutureLab
MyFutureLab is a sustainable orientation tool that shows you a lifetime of suitable career options based on your interests, experiences and skills. We want to offer a smooth transition from career orientation to a deeper insight into professions. Our solution should not only be used once. It should accompany users in their career decisions in the longer term. In this connection, we at MyFutureLab see the career decision as a process that develops over a longer time. In this way, we want to get to know your own interests better and continuously develop yourself within the process. Since we see career orientation as an ongoing process, we also involve the target group of career reorientation, who wants to discover new possibilities based on their experiences. Through the skill-based system, finding new occupations or orientations is facilitated and teaches a more flexible mindset. This service offers benefits for school leavers, job seekers, and career reorientation for tomorrow's more flexible working world.
Phase 1
Phase 1 begins with the foundation of our company and the creation of MyFutureLab Me, which is an initial matrix containing the user's biography and associated competence portfolio. In this phase, the user should familiarise himself with the matrix and, within this framework, gain an overview of his or her own abilities. In this phase, the main focus is on collecting data that will flow into the matrix so that it will be able to make career suggestions to the user in phase 2.
Phase 2
This phase aims to expand the matrix with features such as career recommendations or a view of career paths with Lifeline. The user is to be relieved of the destructive pressure of career planning by being given the opportunity to visualize alternative life paths and make initial contacts in the world of work. Here we open the tool as a social platform for networking.
Phase 3
Our goal in phase three is to first open MyFutureLab Spaces in Stuttgart and to optimize our program. From gained experience, we intend to open locations in major cities throughout Germany. For the users, we want to improve learning skills, making contacts, and expanding their own matrix.
//TEAM
- Jessica Zürn
- Anna Graf
//CONTEXT
- Master of Arts
- 1st Semester
- Mainproject
- HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd
- WS 2020/21
//SUPERVISOR
- Prof. Gabriele N. Reichert
- Thomas Schönweitz