Abstract:

The labor market of the 21st century will be characterized by competitiveness, flexibility and adaptability. The trend of global digitalisation calls for major changes in all areas, including education, involving the inclusion of innovative learning methods in the education process. It is estimated that some of the jobs we know today will disappear and new ones will emerge, in line with the demands of society, the development of science and technology. In order to meet these challenges, an important focus will be on key competences and transversal competences of the human resource. In addition, the crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic has proven that higher education systems have the capacity to adapt quickly to change and to harness technology-based teaching and learning methods. Lessons learned during this period encourage universities to develop relevant learning strategies and use appropriate tools to improve the quality of education. In this context, it can be considered that simulating new working environments where subjects can test their acquired knowledge, but also developing skills for analyzing and collating, processing and structuring information to achieve specific objectives, is an appropriate learning method. This paper carries out a critical analysis of the learning method called Game Based Learning, as a method that can be used in formal higher education curricula. It analyzes both the characteristics of this method of learning and the effects it can have on the future graduates' acquisition and development of the skills needed in the 21st century labor market.

Keywords:

Game based learning, higher education, innovative learning methods, essential competences.