Making jobs together

Qkrowd engages with young people and enables them to work together to make new jobs with assistance from existing national and EU support agencies. Qkrowd enables young people by using:- Digital tribes call Krowds – find people who share your interest or passion and make it work together. Hyper-local geolocation - meet and make jobs together near where you live.

Research Research into some of the barriers young people face in engaging positively with work and support App Development The app’s conceptual development and a simple walk through of the game flow How you can help How you can help us to create and test the app

Aspiration ConnectionOptimism

Aspiration Everyone has aspirations. Joseph Rowntree Trust research shows how it is true whatever the social or economic status. There is not a class of people who do not aspire to live happier, better lives. How to enable peoples’ aspirations is the question.

Optimism Optimism is an enabler to push and pull people into a better life. Esther Duplo’s new research in India shows how people in extreme poverty can make their own lives better by building up skills and money through small tasks and with limited support. Optimism is the first step in unlocking peoples’ aspirations!

Connection Connection to people, places and information is the bridge for making a new life real. In a 2012 American Psychological Society research presentation, the importance of connection in goal achievement rather than self-esteem or worth was highlighted. Connection to society makes engagement possible.

Engagement ConnectionMotivation

Engagement Gamification is a crucial aspect of the app and how it engages with young unemployed people. Using game mechanics, we can ask personal questions, show other people and places and demonstrate practical opportunities to the user. Using individualised play, we can offer a new digital conduit for service delivery.

Motivation Motivation to interact and change depends on aspiration and optimism. We will embed motivational interview and other proven techniques into the app structure to raise individual user expectations. Using game concepts of badges and rewards, the app pulls the user in to engage and connect

Connection The app connects a user to:- Other local users Local employment and education support agencies Local work or work experience opportunities The user communicates through FaceBook or Twitter but the app simplifies the identification of relevant local people and places.

The app uses themed ‘digital overlays’ called Krowds. The mechanics of the app remain the same but the ‘look and feel’ of characters, maps and places are matched to user’s personal choice. The app uses hyper- local geographic data to deliver connections, opportunities and information that are specific to the user. Connections must be relevant and local to enable engagement.

Digital Tribes and self-recognised personas are important ways of engaging with people who do not recognise or relate to existing structures of support. The app will have a range of digital personas,called Krowds, to choose from. The sample here are from childhood. User testing will provide a real selection. This choice at the very opening of the app acts a soft pre-selection question for the type of people and types of User Experience that are offered later on.

Once a Krowd has been chosen, the app starts and the use is rewarded with a point/badge. The use of points and badges to maintain regular app use comes from game design theory. The app offers to show a map of local connections or to start building the in- game character or avatar.

Building up the avatar is the way in which we engage with the user and build up their confidence in their self- assessed skills, knowledge and interests. Using the motivational interview technique (OARS – Open ended questions, Affirm, Reflective listening, Summarise), the user can answer questions (including some jokey ones) so we can build an in game avatar that actually shows and affirms the user’s real world capabilities.

The user can look at the local map whenever they like. The amount of information shown may however, be limited by how much information they have provided in the avatar building process. The key elements of the map are: Other app users who have different skills Centres offering training or support Opportunities to work

Clicking on an opportunity will show what it is and offer the user the choice to do it or not. At this point, the user can contact other users or service providers to build up support (skills or knowledge they do not possess) to achieve the real world task. Contact will be though FaceBook or Twitter as they already provide regulated secure and safe communication systems.

Having gone out and worked with others to achieve the task, the user logs back in and is rewarded with points. These points build up through use of the app and show both the user and others that they are achieving and making work in the real world. Using the app builds confidence and affirms the skills of the user.

The user can keep playing the app for as long as they wish. However, the goal of the app is to make them confident enough to stop. The app builds up a record of their achievements which can be transferred to a CV or similar work record. By working locally, mutually and on small tasks, the app user has affirmed and proved their capabilities and knowledge through work.

Funding UsersPartners

Funding We are currently looking to fund the app development and testing through the United Kingdom’s Design Council ‘Working Well’ Challenge. Qkrowd can work in any country, contact us if you want to start it where you are!

Partners We are looking for partner organisations who are already service providers to young people seeking employment or training. The app acts as digital conduit to a real world service providers and we need people experienced in delivery of support.

Users For testing and prototyping, we will need to work with partner agencies to work with users to define what works best Key development questions include: Digital personas to be made available What questions in avatar creation Type of work opportunities offered

If your organisation is interested in working with us to try a new way of engaging with young people digitally to make jobs, please contact me. Alastair Somerville +44 (0)7808