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Overcoming Employment Barriers™

is an educational game that gives job seekers the knowledge and skills they need to overcome barriers to getting a good job. A wide range of barriers are covered in the game, including prison record, lack of skills, fluency problems with English fluency, homelessness, addiction, former addiction, physical disability, inappropriate appearance, bad references, and others.

There are two levels of barriers. The first level (called Level I in the game) is the level on the surface. The second level (called Level II) is usually below the surface. Level II barriers are not on the application and are usually not brought up by the interviewer. However, the level II barriers often present the biggest obstacles. These barriers represent conclusions that employers may make about the person. Some of the conclusions may be due to prejudice or ignorance on the employer's part. As an example, a man does not speak good English because he recently emigrated from another country. The Level I barrier is that his poor English skills would prevent him from performing well at certain jobs.

The Level II barriers could include the employer’s fear that the man does not have a strong work ethic, that the man may engage in sexual harassment (especially if the offensive behavior is culturally acceptable in the country he comes from), that the man may not understand American business culture and may unintentionally insult customers or co-workers, etc. Players learn how to overcome both Level I and Level II barriers. Players learn seven strategies for overcoming employment barriers. In the first part of the game, players give advice to fictitious job seekers on recognizing barriers, selecting strategies, and creating an action plan. In the second part the players use reproducible forms to work on developing strategies and action plans for overcoming their own barriers. Players go through the same steps to help themselves that they used to give advice to the fictitious job seekers. To add to the fun of playing, players earn play money and get to advance their pawns on a obstacle-filled race track on the board. There are also true-false cards that give additional valuable information on overcoming barriers and interview skills in general.

Grades 8 - adult

SCANS Skills Addressed:
Foundation Skills: Thinking Skills, Personal Qualities, Basic Skills
Workplace Competencies: Interpersonal Skills, Systems Learning Objectives:

1. Learn how to identify barriers to employment, especially those that are beneath the surface and are not brought up during interviews.

2. Learn how job seekers face hidden barriers that reflect employer misconceptions, generalizations, and sometimes prejudice.

3. Learn seven different strategies for dealing with barriers, both obvious and hidden.

4. Learn how to put the seven strategies into action.
5. After practicing on case studies, develop action plans for overcoming their own barriers.