One day children will grow up, become adults, and have to make their own way in the world.
To assist with this transition, Life Skills are increasingly being introduced into the educational environment.
Play is a wonderful way for children to learn, and Panjango creates games which incorporate learning about ‘real world’ work within a game environment.
Panjango games are traditional hands-on games for real physical and social interaction.
There are three games: The Panjango Game, Panjango Trumps, and Panjango Trumps: Future Jobs.
I’ve reviewed The Panjango Game, a challenge-based game, here.
Panjango Trumps combines learning about work and career with play.
What is Panjango Trumps? How does it work?
Panjango Trumps uses the Top Trumps principle and applies it to the world of work. It’s aimed at children age 8 and older.
They have identified no fewer than 50 jobs, and assigned values to each of six categories.
The range of jobs is extremely impressive, and include Farmer, Cleaner, Retail Store Manager, Sports Scientist, Dentist, Beautician, Chef, and Metal Worker.
As well as a description, each job is scored according to various categories: Brain Power, Social Good, Physical Effort, Expected Salary, Study & Training, and Robot Risk.
The object of the game is to get the highest score in the chosen category, with the exception of Robot Risk. This category represents this risk of this particular job being replaced by AI or automation, and in this case, the lowest score wins.
Each card is illustrated by a little cartoon character.
It is noteworthy that these illustrations do not follow gender stereotypes. As far is they resemble males or females, there is a reasonable distribution, such as a vaguely female Engineer and vaguely male Pilot above. ‘He’ and ‘she’ are not used, so there is no limitation on identifying with the job.
As well as the standard Top Trumps-style game, there are further suggestions for games and exercises.
There’s plenty of opportunity for creative discussion, including making up stories based on one or more jobs, and word association exercises. There is even a blank card to copy and invent your own jobs.
The ‘Social Good’ category raises so many questions about the value of the jobs people do. You could talk about what kind of people might like to do what jobs, why one thing would appeal more than others. I can imagine some interesting discussions on the accuracy of the various category values.
Another subject this touches is maths. There are suggestions for using the salary information on the cards, such as working out earnings over a lifetime, or the hourly or daily rate.
On a personal note, the one card I wasn’t sure about was the Artist.
This is too broad a range to include in one job card. Oddly, Graphic Designer is a separate card, yet it arguably falls into the category of artist.
The scoring categories vary wildly between different disciplines, and none of them require only three years of training. Performing artists invariably start in childhood. In the case of musicians, most of them will have trained for at least three years before they reach their teens. And try telling a dancer that their physical effort scores less than a hairdresser!
Is it fun?
Well, yes, it is! A wonderful aspect of childhood is the ability to combine play with learning. Children are able to absorb information simply by being entertained and engaged, and games are a very useful way to expand their knowledge.
Card games are great entertainment. They’re sociable, portable, and don’t involve staring at a screen.
For children, the basic game is competitive, like any card game.
The bonus is the theme. Children can absorb information without realising, and this game can certainly open their minds to careers of which they may not have been aware.
At the younger end of the age range this is the primary effect of this game. My eight-year-old is at the stage where she wants to be everything, and she found many of the jobs very interesting. She was also keen to win as many cards as possible!
The extra games add a whole new dimension. For slightly older children I can imagine these cards will open up some very interesting conversations, as well as the maths and writing activities.
Conclusions
Aside from picking at the artist card, I think this is a remarkable learning tool. It is very simple, but the information can be taken in so many directions.
At home we played it as a game, but these cards would have many uses in the classroom. From group discussions, creative writing, maths, to simply playing the game, this is an imaginative and inspiring set of cards.
An original and effective way to open children’s eyes to the potential of their future.
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I’ve also reviewed The Panjango Game here.
You can also read more parent-related stuff here.
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