Toyoko Inn Co., Ltd. plans to conduct a Minecraft-based employee training program in January 2024. CA Tech Kids, a company that provides programming education for children, will supervise the planning and operation of the training.
Toyoko Inn conducts employee training using Minecraft
Toyoko Inn, a business hotel chain with the largest number of guest rooms in Japan, recognized that the acquisition and training of human resources is an important issue for the entire hotel industry in the face of a serious shortage of human resources. In addition to solving such issues, the company has embarked on digital training as a groundbreaking initiative in the hotel industry. As a first step, an employee training program utilizing Minecraft will be implemented in January 2024.
Training Contents
In the Minecraft-based training, teams will work on tasks such as "planning and constructing a concept hotel" in a virtual space. Employees will develop their abilities while actively learning concept-making, task management, teamwork, management skills, and other skills. In addition, by incorporating programming elements into some of the tasks, the program aims to cultivate programming thinking, such as decomposition and abstraction. Through active communication among employees through Minecraft, the company expects to discover talents that are difficult to see in their daily work. The employee training will take place over three days from January 10 (Wed.) to 12 (Fri.), 2024, with 280 employees participating.
CA Tech Kids Inc., a company involved in the programming education business for children, is participating in the planning, supervision, and operation of the program. CA Tech Kids has been developing its educational business utilizing technology since early on, including the first programming class in Japan in 2017 that was officially certified by Microsoft Japan and utilized Minecraft.
Programming classes using Minecraft are increasing every year in Japan, but most of them are for students. However, Minecraft's ability to allow students to freely set goals and find flexible solutions is one of its strengths, so it is expected to be used for employee training and as an icebreaker for new graduates in the future.
Comments from Maiko Kuroda, President and Representative Executive Officer of Toyoko Inn Co.
When I was thinking that IT reskilling of our employees was essential to become a company chosen by our employees and to solve the IT personnel shortage, I came across an article in a newspaper. It was an article about programming education in elementary schools, and I was shocked to see that the assignment for sixth graders was to "create an application to solve a family problem. I immediately visited the elementary school to find out what it meant for students to acquire problem-solving skills through programming education. I was impressed to see the elementary school students working enthusiastically in teams to solve problems. I was interested in CA Tech Kids, which created the program together with the elementary school, and this training became a reality. I actually experienced the program myself, and the long training time flew by because the CA Tech Kids staff was so energetic. The team members were able to naturally divide their roles without being bound by hierarchical relationships, and while having fun solving problems, they were also able to discover personalities and abilities that are difficult to see in their normal work. It remains to be seen what the employees will learn and how they will apply it to their regular work, but I am very much looking forward to it.
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