Gamifying careers: How the ICE CityZen Award engages the next generation of civil engineers

If you’ve got a child or grandchild under the age of 18 it’s quite likely that at some time you’ve worried about their obsession with computer games. I’m sitting next to a nine-year playing on his tablet right now. 

But whether you love games yourself, or hate them, no-one in education can deny their usefulness in helping children engage with and learn a range of content, from Times Tables Rockstars, Ed Shed, Class Dojo and seemingly endless others – primary school classrooms are especially flooded with them. 

In short, Gen Z are accustomed to interactive, tech-based experiences being part of their education. 

But what of secondary and further education settings? 

The ability to deliver gamified content seems to get overtaken by the sheer amount of curriculum content to teach, plus there is that pesky real-world context to include… Linking curriculum learning to careers in an engaging way is a further challenge. 

My daily challenge is to find ways to highlight civil engineering – arguably the least-publicly understood of the major engineering career pathways – with students and teachers in the 11+ sector. It’s one I gladly took on after years of working in the entertainment industry, marketing to diverse audiences, finding fun and exciting ways to engage people with contemporary dance, opera and new music. From those experiences I learnt much about ‘education’ in the broadest sense of the word, especially that familiarity and understanding are the first two steps to appreciation and liking.   

I’ve been involved in the Institution of Civil Engineers’ digital education programme now for over three years, project-managing the ICE CityZen Award amongst other things. In 2023 and 2024 all the hard work my team has put in seemed to come to fruition with the ICE CityZen project winning three major awards for excellence (2023 Learning Technologies Award for Best Learning Game, 2024 Bett Award for Best Secondary Resource and the 2024 Memcom Excellence Award for Best Education Initiative). 

Although I’ve been working in this area for a while, I’ve recently started studying a professional diploma in digital learning design to consolidate my knowledge of this exciting area. It’s really opened my eyes to the amazing potential for learners of the future.  

The journey to creating a gamified experience to ‘teach’ young learners about careers in civil engineering began in 2019 in the real world. A group of engineers sat around a table in ICE’s headquarters and brain-dumped all the key information about being a civil engineer – from how they work (in teams), what they build or fix (nearly everything!), to the key metrics of success (more sustainable, lower cost, less congested, better for the people who live there). The developer Make Real curated these into a range of really life-like and interesting scenarios, added gamified metrics and hey presto – the ICE CityZen game was born! 

It’s cross-curricular appeal and the way in which it doesn’t just show, but allows students to ‘do’ (as they make decisions about what infrastructure to create and how to do it), has been praised by teachers who’ve got involved, but crucially, the game format does more than inform and test… The cooperative nature of the ICE CityZen game helps build emotional intelligence, teamwork, and communication skills. This collaborative aspect mirrors real-world career settings where these skills are often critical to success. 

Keeping learners engaged and motivated to study by explore potential career paths is also possibly a benefit for many students. We’ve seen may students get involved in the ICE CityZen Award at their friends’ request, only to develop a real interest in engineering. 

I truly hope I’ll see more careers initiatives in the future like the ICE CityZen games (there is now more than one!) – as they’re more than just fun, they’re a pathway to meaningful growth.