News story

The 'Beautiful Game' helps build manpower planning skills

London, UK25 Oct 2006Learning NewsMPS Interactive Systems

Football forms the metaphor for an e-learning programme on manpower planning, produced by the global e-learning producer, Tata Interactive Systems (TIS), for Royal Mail.

Football - a game known the world over - forms the metaphor for an e-learning programme on manpower planning, produced by the global e-learning producer, Tata Interactive Systems (TIS), for Royal Mail.

When Royal Mail realised that those managing and administering its mail centre staff throughout the country needed to understand both the principles and practicalities of manpower planning as well as operate their existing manpower planning system, it commissioned TIS to produce some relevant e-learning materials.

TIS's Rohit Sharma explained: "We decided to introduce the concept of manpower planning through game-based learning - a concept that is relatively new to e-learning, although in its non-electronic form, learning from playing games is probably as old as humankind itself.

"The game that we developed finds each learner as the manager of a football team. The learner has to select his/her team to play against a team managed by the computer.

"However, the learners have to take account of players becoming injured, receiving yellow or red cards during the game and even forgetting to turn up for the kick-off!" he said. "Among other things, the game teaches the learners to make contingency plans - which is a key concept in manpower planning."

Having mastered the football management game, learners apply their new knowledge and skills to Royal Mail's computer-based manpower planning tool within a controlled environment. If they make any errors, they receive 'yellow' or 'red' cards and, at the end of the programme, they receive a computer-generated assessment test.

The game based learning materials, which went 'live' some nine months ago, are attracting a growing number of users among the Royal Mail's mail centre managers and administrators. In July alone, some 342 users completed the programme - although it could be that they were experiencing 'withdrawal symptoms' at the end of this year's World Cup.

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