[Change in Middle School Students' "Work Awareness"] Career Experience Boosts "Working is Fun" Score by 1.9 Points
The Yume Rakuza Project's in-school career experience program conducted in 2025 significantly improved middle schoolers' attitudes, raising the "working is fun" metric by 1.9 points.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: April 14, 2026 at 19:00
- 🔍 Collected: April 14, 2026 at 10:31
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 19, 2026 at 18:02 (127h 31m after Collected)
■ Overview
General Incorporated Association Yume Rakuza Project (Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo / Representative Director: Ryo Takada) implemented the "Oshigoto Narikiri Demae Dojo" (Career Experience Delivery Dojo), an in-school career experience program, in the 2025 academic year. The program saw participation from 4,396 students across 35 schools in 4 prefectures. Post-implementation surveys revealed a change in students' career perspectives, including an increase in the average score for "awareness toward working."
■ Background | Challenges Surrounding Workplace Experiences
While workplace experiences in middle schools are widely implemented as part of career education, several challenges have been pointed out within the educational field.
For instance, in schools with a large number of students, the burden of securing host organizations and coordinating logistics is significant, tending to increase the workload for teachers.
Additionally, the content of the experience can vary greatly depending on the host organization, making it difficult to maintain a consistent quality of learning.
Furthermore, in some cases, the hardships of the job leave a strong impression on students, preventing them from fully grasping the rewarding and interesting aspects of working.
■ Initiative | Career Experiences Completed Within the School
The "Oshigoto Narikiri Demae Dojo" is a program that conducts hands-on classes led by professionals from various occupations within the school premises.
This program started during the COVID-19 pandemic as an alternative to workplace experiences for second-year middle school students. Since then, it has evolved beyond a mere substitute. Currently, it is increasingly being utilized as an introductory career education program for first-year middle school students, paving the way for their workplace experiences the following year.
One of its key features is the deployment of programs across diverse occupational fields, allowing students to choose experiences based on their own interests and curiosities.
Moreover, rather than being a one-off experience, it is designed to combine preparatory and follow-up learning to deepen the understanding of work and solidify it as educational knowledge.
Since its inception, the program has involved over 30,000 participants across 217 schools. The experiences offered cover 75 different types of occupations.
Additionally, this initiative has been awarded the "Tokyo Metropolitan Government Children's Smile Movement Grand Prize - Excellence Award" and the "Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Career Education Award - Excellence Award."
■ Results | FY2025
The results for the 2025 academic year are as follows:
Participating Schools: 35 schools in 4 prefectures (2 elementary schools, 33 middle schools)
Participants: 4,396 (99 elementary students, 4,297 middle school students)
Satisfaction Survey:
Students: 81% "Very Satisfied", 17% "Somewhat Satisfied"
Teachers: 86% "Very Satisfied", 14% "Somewhat Satisfied"
These results indicate high acclaim.
■ Survey Results | Changes in Awareness Toward Work
A clear change was observed in students' awareness before and after experiencing the program.
Regarding the sentiment "Working is fun," on an 11-point scale (0 = not looking forward to it at all, 10 = looking forward to it very much):
Pre-experience: Average 6.1
Post-experience: Average 8.0
This represents a 1.9-point increase.
Furthermore, in response to the question "What is work?", rather than answers like "to earn money," there were many responses such as:
"Working for others"
"Working to be helpful to someone"
This showed a shift in how they perceive working.
■ Voice of Teachers (Excerpt)
Teachers from participating schools shared the following feedback:
"Almost all students answered with a smile that 'it was fun.'"
"Their image of working seems to have changed."
"I think it became a trigger for them to think about their future."
"The serious expressions not usually seen in regular classes were impressive."
"They were able to understand not only the fun of the job but also its challenges."
Also,
"Seeing the students talking in the hallway after the experience saying 'It was fun!' left a strong impression on me."
Many such comments reflecting the proactive changes in students were received.
■ Future Developments
Moving forward, this initiative plans to further expand the number of participating schools and provide practical career education opportunities in even more educational institutions.
Additionally, to deliver diverse career perspectives to students, the program is actively recruiting individuals and companies willing to cooperate as instructors for these career experiences.
General Incorporated Association Yume Rakuza Project (Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo / Representative Director: Ryo Takada) implemented the "Oshigoto Narikiri Demae Dojo" (Career Experience Delivery Dojo), an in-school career experience program, in the 2025 academic year. The program saw participation from 4,396 students across 35 schools in 4 prefectures. Post-implementation surveys revealed a change in students' career perspectives, including an increase in the average score for "awareness toward working."
■ Background | Challenges Surrounding Workplace Experiences
While workplace experiences in middle schools are widely implemented as part of career education, several challenges have been pointed out within the educational field.
For instance, in schools with a large number of students, the burden of securing host organizations and coordinating logistics is significant, tending to increase the workload for teachers.
Additionally, the content of the experience can vary greatly depending on the host organization, making it difficult to maintain a consistent quality of learning.
Furthermore, in some cases, the hardships of the job leave a strong impression on students, preventing them from fully grasping the rewarding and interesting aspects of working.
■ Initiative | Career Experiences Completed Within the School
The "Oshigoto Narikiri Demae Dojo" is a program that conducts hands-on classes led by professionals from various occupations within the school premises.
This program started during the COVID-19 pandemic as an alternative to workplace experiences for second-year middle school students. Since then, it has evolved beyond a mere substitute. Currently, it is increasingly being utilized as an introductory career education program for first-year middle school students, paving the way for their workplace experiences the following year.
One of its key features is the deployment of programs across diverse occupational fields, allowing students to choose experiences based on their own interests and curiosities.
Moreover, rather than being a one-off experience, it is designed to combine preparatory and follow-up learning to deepen the understanding of work and solidify it as educational knowledge.
Since its inception, the program has involved over 30,000 participants across 217 schools. The experiences offered cover 75 different types of occupations.
Additionally, this initiative has been awarded the "Tokyo Metropolitan Government Children's Smile Movement Grand Prize - Excellence Award" and the "Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Career Education Award - Excellence Award."
■ Results | FY2025
The results for the 2025 academic year are as follows:
Participating Schools: 35 schools in 4 prefectures (2 elementary schools, 33 middle schools)
Participants: 4,396 (99 elementary students, 4,297 middle school students)
Satisfaction Survey:
Students: 81% "Very Satisfied", 17% "Somewhat Satisfied"
Teachers: 86% "Very Satisfied", 14% "Somewhat Satisfied"
These results indicate high acclaim.
■ Survey Results | Changes in Awareness Toward Work
A clear change was observed in students' awareness before and after experiencing the program.
Regarding the sentiment "Working is fun," on an 11-point scale (0 = not looking forward to it at all, 10 = looking forward to it very much):
Pre-experience: Average 6.1
Post-experience: Average 8.0
This represents a 1.9-point increase.
Furthermore, in response to the question "What is work?", rather than answers like "to earn money," there were many responses such as:
"Working for others"
"Working to be helpful to someone"
This showed a shift in how they perceive working.
■ Voice of Teachers (Excerpt)
Teachers from participating schools shared the following feedback:
"Almost all students answered with a smile that 'it was fun.'"
"Their image of working seems to have changed."
"I think it became a trigger for them to think about their future."
"The serious expressions not usually seen in regular classes were impressive."
"They were able to understand not only the fun of the job but also its challenges."
Also,
"Seeing the students talking in the hallway after the experience saying 'It was fun!' left a strong impression on me."
Many such comments reflecting the proactive changes in students were received.
■ Future Developments
Moving forward, this initiative plans to further expand the number of participating schools and provide practical career education opportunities in even more educational institutions.
Additionally, to deliver diverse career perspectives to students, the program is actively recruiting individuals and companies willing to cooperate as instructors for these career experiences.