The Real Game

A classroom programme to introduce Year 9 and 10 students to the world of work, develop their understanding of what's available to them, and the importance of their choices.

What is The Real Game?

The Real Game is a career education resource designed for students in Years 9 and 10. It introduces students to the world of work and helps them develop an understanding of the options and opportunities available to them and the implications and importance of their choices.

It is a useful step towards individual learning and career planning, including subject choice. It uses elements of role play, group work and individual investigation to help students develop knowledge, skills and attitudes they will need to assess and make decisions about further education, training and career options.

The Real Game was developed in Canada. Several countries around the world offer programmes from The Real Game series. 

What changed in the 2014 update

The 2014 update of the New Zealand version of The Real Game concentrated on time-dependent information. It was not a full revision of the second New Zealand edition released in 2007.

We updated these components:

  • content and design of the role profiles and student worksheets
  • design of the High 5 poster
  • the facilitator’s guide, to reflect the changes made to the above.

Components we did not update in 2014 were the:

  • Spin wheel and question and answer cards 
  • Chance cards.

The 2014 update package contains all of the above components in PDF format except the Spin Game wheel. The digital Flash version of the Spin Game wheel is still available for download at the bottom of this page. You can continue to use printed versions of components that were not updated in 2014 if you have them.

To further support your use of The Real Game, we have also created digital versions of some of the student worksheets your students could use instead of a printed worksheet.

Digital Spin Game wheel

This application is an alternative to the Spin Game wheel transparency.

To use this application you need:

  • to save the zip file to your computer
  • software to uncompress the downloaded folder
  • Adobe Flash Player, version 8 or later 
  • internet browser 
  • to keep the .html and .swf files together in the same folder 
  • to double-click the .html file to open the application.

There is a PC and a Mac version in the folder you download below.

Please note that this application is not a complete game. To use the Spin Game activity you also require the Spin Game question and answer cards.

Ordering and further information

Careers New Zealand is only licensed to share our Real Game materials within New Zealand so we cannot make any of the 2014 update PDFs or digital worksheets available through our website.

You will need to provide a Google account for us to upload The Real Game 2014 update folder into. You will find The Real Game files in your Google Drive area, from there you can download the files to your school network or your own Google Drive account.

Distribution and pricing

State and integrated secondary schools can request The Real Game 2014 update package free of charge. Other organisations can purchase the package for $149.50 (inc GST).

Updated 9 Oct 2019