Job Dominoes

Aim: Job Dominoes may be used to achieve a range of outcomes depending on the
ability level of the students. It may, for example, help to increase the work-related
vocabulary of students with moderate learning difficulties, or help other students
increase their understanding of the skills and qualities required by certain
occupations.

Materials: Job Dominoes consists of 36 illustrations of people at work which cover

six job families: practical work, persuading others, scientific, office work, artistic,
helping others. Each illustration contains a small symbol to help users identify the
family which the illustration represents.

Practical:! ! ! ! A spanner
Persuading:! ! ! ! A finger pointing
Scientific:! ! ! ! A microscope
Office:! ! ! ! A computer screen
Artistic:! ! ! ! A paintbrush
Helping:! ! ! ! A pair of hands

Preparation: The illustrations are copied and mounted on stiff card, and then
separated to produce a pack of 36 cards.

Procedure: The cards are shared among two, three or four players. One card is
selected at random and placed on the table. The first player searches his or her hand
for a card which has a link to the one on the table. The link could be

- that it comes from the same job family

- that the two jobs may be found in the same workplace
- that one job provides some kind of service for the other

There are many other possible links such as both may involve wearing a uniform,
working at heights, using machinery or vehicles etc

Having explained the link to the other players, the player places the card next to the
first one. The game then continues in the traditional domino format with players

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taking turns to establish a link with one end or the other of the domino chain. The
winner is the first player (or team) to have no ‘dominoes’ left.

Rules: The rest of the players must agree with the link that is being made. A player
failing to establish a link must pick up a ‘domino’ from one end of the chain.

Variation: To make the game more of a challenge, certain links could be excluded,
such as the direct link with a job family or a workplace.

Review: Make a list of all the links that have been discovered.
Find out which links were concerned with job duties (skills, demands, tasks etc) and
which were concerned with the job situation (rewards, working conditions etc)
Were there any unusual or interesting links uncovered?
Were there any jobs that were difficult to link to others? Why was this?

Pigeonhole
Aim: To help younger students understand how popular stereotypes and inaccurate
information can distort attitudes to certain jobs.

Materials: On pack of 36 cards per group of four or five students.

Procedure: Share out the cards amongst the group. Ask students to study their cards
and those of their neighbours to decide:

Which job is the easiest to do?

Which job is the most difficult?
Which job is the best paid?
Which job is the worst paid?
Which jobs is the most dangerous?
Which job is the most valuable to the community?
Which job is most admired by the community?

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Which job could we do without?
Which job is bad for the environment?
Which job is the most interesting?
Which job is the most boring?
Which job is best done by a woman?
Which job is best done by a man?

There are rarely any definitive answers to questions of this nature, but students will
have little difficulty in finding contenders for these roles.

Review: Encourage students to explain the reasons for their choices.

What evidence do they have to support their views?
Ask them to consider how they may have been influenced in their views.

Guess the Connection

Aim: This game has been devised to encourage students to investigate other aspects
of work that can be very important in employment.

Materials: One pack of 36 cards per group of four of five students.

Procedure: The cards are spread face down on the table. Players take turns at picking
up cards until they have collected three which they believe have something in
common. The connection could be on any topic and the following list may help:

Daily duties!! ! ! ! People at work

Type of workplace!! ! ! Hours of work
Working conditions! ! ! Qualifications required! ! !
Special skills! ! ! ! Safety
Wages and rewards! ! ! Customers
Uniform! ! ! ! ! Opportunities! ! ! !
Training! ! ! ! ! Travel! ! ! ! !

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Players must not hold more than three cards, but may use a turn to exchange one card
from the pool on the table.

When ready, a player can place the three cards upwards on the table and challenge the
other players to guess the connection.

If another player guesses correctly, he or she is awarded a point and the challenger
receives three points. After a successful challenge, all cards are returned and placed
face down on the table.

If the connection is not identified correctly, or is hotly disputed, no points are

awarded and the game continues to the next player.

The winner is the player with most points after a specified number of rounds.

Review: Make a list of all the links that have been discovered.
Find out which links were concerned with job duties (skills, demands, tasks etc) and
which were concerned with the job situation (rewards, working conditions etc)
Were there any unusual or interesting links uncovered?
Were there any jobs that were difficult to link to others? Why was this?

A Job Dominoes Quiz

Aim: To increase students’ awareness of their community earns its living.

Materials: One pack of Job Dominoes. One copy of the Local Scene Quiz per group
of four to six pupils

Preparation: Prior to presenting this activity, check out yellow pages or the local
newspaper to have some answers ready.

Procedure. Display one Job Dominoes card at a time and ask pupils to suggest a
local firm or organisation that might employ the occupation illustrated on the card.
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After this, provide each student (or small group) with a copy of the Local Scene quiz
to see how well they can answers the questions.

Review: A classroom discussion of the answers should help to identify gaps in local
job knowledge within the class. It can also reveal popular misconceptions about
different jobs and going to work.

For more ideas and games linking jobs with skills and personal qualities, try Junior
Jobmatch! or Jobmatch! which may be downloaded freely from Mudsailor’s area on
scribd.com.