By James Vandervoort and Amber Taverner
The Missing Link: The Software Career Mystery Kit with CD-ROM
The Software Human Resource Council, www.shrc.ca
The Missing Link is an exploration of careers in the Software Technology Industry. There are two different ways to use the CD-ROM: Access descriptive information on 24 job areas; and play the Missing Link Game. The kit contains a CD-ROM, a Teacher’s Guide (which includes lesson plans, research and role-playing activities, group and individual activities), a poster, and a faxback form. The material in this kit is geared towards youth and students and “is suitable for use in career preparation classes, math, and science classes”.
Careers Section
The Careers section provides the user with career and labour market information for the software industry including salary ranges, job descriptions, web site link to colleges and universities, and educational requirements. Through the job links menu you can choose amongst 6 areas: Industry Future, Money, Schools, Job Areas, Career Preparation and Careers.
The job links menu is visually appealing and easy to navigate yet, some areas lack detailed information. Although many other resources are listed in the teachers guide, they are not listed on the CD-ROM. Additional sources of labour market/industry information and educational web sites would be beneficial.
Within Careers, the Software industry is further broken down into seven job classes with each class having its own sub-class. For example, in the Education Area, there are two smaller subsections: Education/Training and Technical Writing. Clicking on a subsection allows the user to view job examples with a brief synopsis and description.
The Game
The purpose of the game is to locate the Diogenes Labs’ infobot named “Alice”. Players must review the profiles and office environments for nine characters and solve puzzles to open files and move forward. Playing the game allows users to discover potential careers in software technology and utilize their problem solving and analytical skills.
One aspect of the game that we found unique and creative was the variety of colourful work environments, each room decorated to suit the tastes and personality of one of the characters. We appreciated the fact that the developers tried to be realistic and reflect a balance in gender and ethnicity. Making references to Canadian schools and other objects “Canadiana” was a nice touch.
Whether you are interested in using the game with a group of students, or finding out more about potential careers in the area of software development, The Missing Link is definitely worth checking out.
Review by: James Vandervoort – Practicum Student with Contact Point – 2002 – George Brown College , Career & Work Counsellor Program and Amber Taverner- Content Developer, Contact Point.
James Vandervoort has recently completed the George Brown College Career and Work Counsellor program. His interests include: Research and writing, career development and social history. James enjoys facilitating workshops and working with people on a one-to-one basis. His motto is “use what you have to make the best of what you are.” James can be reached at jimme1963@hotmail.com .