The lab had a special team member last week: Juliën. As a third-year HAVO secondary school pupil, he completed a work shadowing placement to learn about business, particularly the games industry.
The placement was part of the 'Come to work' project at Goudse Scholengemeenschap Leo Vroman. GSG Leo Vroman is a school focused on academic education, with MAVO, HAVO and Atheneum streams.
Around 10 years ago, the school chose to reshape its education. It wanted to respond to what motivates pupils and the skills they would need in the future.
At GSG Leo Vroman, pupils in the third year of HAVO and fourth year of Atheneum have the opportunity to gain experience and knowledge beyond the school walls. Within the career orientation programme, pupils learn workplace skills, standards and values, and how to
put their strengths to use.
Pupils explore an organisation to gain the broadest possible picture of the professions within a particular sector. They often already have an idea of a profession and how its work is done. By looking behind the scenes of an organisation, they can form a clearer picture and check whether their own impressions match reality.
Juliën completed his placement at GameLab. He spent four days in the lab, helping students test their games. In particular, he put USB-BOT through its paces and carefully reported bugs to the developer.
Juliën says: "I found my GameLab placement really enjoyable and interesting, and it will definitely be an option when I start thinking about my own studies. I saw that students could work creatively on their own projects or assigned projects. I also helped them with playtesting and learnt some initial steps in making your own game and planning the work."
We thank Juliën for his efforts and wish him every success with the rest of his education!