Shayden

Shayden joined the video game testing program, QA for Gaming, in October 2024 as an experienced gamer who wanted to explore what employment opportunities might look like. This was an exciting step in testing a career path that would be a great fit for him. In his words for him, this was also about a pathway to become a more responsible adult with a future goal of renting his own home and contributing his employment taxes back to society. He also joined to get out of the house and build his confidence and skills to work with other young people he didn’t know. Prior to this, Shayden begun his learning journey at Youth Options in May 2023 and over 14 months developed his confidence and skills in cooking, resilience, and career development.

Shayden brought his love of video gaming playing and reading to the program, as well as his skills in critical thinking, relating to others, and giving feedback. Over 3 months he completed level 1 and level 2 and gained 5 South Australian Skills Commission accredited micro-credentials in: play testing, bug testing, game test plan writer, game test case writer, and game play testing lead.

During this time Shayden grew more confident in his testing skills, giving group presentations, and demonstrating his initiative including pro-actively asking questions to improve his learning and performance. These are employability skills that employers highly value alongside his technical skills in video game testing.

We thought Shayden was so good, we employed him as a QA for Gaming peer leader. In this role he is responsible for co-supporting participants with their technical learning and soft skill development alongside our highly experienced QA tester. Alongside his technical skills, Shayden’s flair for establishing rapport, his facilitation skills, and giving constructive feedback have really shone.

We are so proud of him and are excited about his working future.