A new board game, designed to teach young people about the role and importance of today’s supply chain, has been launched with sponsorship by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. 

Called ‘Business on the Move’, it is an innovative, challenging and fast-moving board game designed by former teachers for young people aged nine upwards. Its objective is to help children understand how the supply chain works in order to deliver products to shops and homes. It is also designed to help them gain business skills and acumen to help them in their future careers in a fun and stimulating way. 

Business on the Move helps educate, inform and inspire them to learn more about goods and products that are moved around the world from factory to home. It uses real-life information, tasks and problem solving to help players to deliver goods from a factory in China to the UK in a timely and cost-efficient way. 

The game has been trialled by around 600 children and teachers in more than 30 schools and by supply chain professionals in leading companies and retailers. A further 12,000 young people are predicted to play the game over the next 12 months. The game’s founders, Andy Page and Pat Smedley, intend that more than 100,000 people will have played the game by 2020. 

Launching the game in central London on Friday 27th June, Pat Smedley, a Founding Director of the social enterprise behind the game said: “Active learning improves students’ understanding and retention of information and can be very effective in developing higher order cognitive skills such as problem solving and critical thinking. It’s active learning, across age, ability and matched to the new curriculum. 

Co-founder Andy Page commented: “Business on the Move gives young people a buzz about business. It connects the classroom to the outside worlds and we find that students are motivated to learn.”

At the national launch of the game at the headquarters of the National Union of Teachers in London, a panel discussion was held. Steve Agg, Chief Executive of the CILT said: “It’s fun, you get challenged. You can learn from your successes and failures and you gain reward.” 

He continued: “We recognised right from the start that the game could help young people to understand the role that logistics, transport and supply chain plays in all our daily lives. Employing more than 10% of the working population in the UK, it ensures that there are great opportunities for young people and we want them to love logistics when they come to consider their career options.” 

It is intended that many of the games now for sale will be purchased by companies and donated to local schools, complete with training. More information on the game can be found at www.businessonthemove.org 

The launch involved children from a number of primary and secondary schools taking part in the game.