“Virkelighedens skole” is an alternative internship course for students in 8th grade in collaboration with Gentofte Municipality and a number of companies. The company's task was to make one or more authentic problems available. The problems had to be solved using innovation methods, which we guided them through over 3 days, where the young students had to create something that extended beyond the classroom.

The design

The young people should choose from one of two authentic issues:

1. How do we frame and communicate to young people about what SKAT is and how the tax money is used, when the young people do not seek out SKAT themselves and neither checking inquiries (e.g. in e-Boks)?

2. How can we show how the Danish tax money is used in order to give citizens an understanding of the value of paying tax?
   

The 3 days were structured as a mini design sprint, where the young students had to come up with a solution to one of the problems.
The days started out with a presentation about The Danish Tax system (e.g. What is direct and indirect tax, income tax, VAT, excise duties, green taxes as well as an introduction to the financial law).
And specialists from SKAT gave presentations on relevant topics.

All methods were continuously introduced and exemplified.

Important though: quizzes and many breaks were scheduled, because: teenagers

The process

A 3 day design sprint stripped down to the bone:

• Brainstorming

• Sketching

• Describe target audience

• Quick’n dirty interviews

• Conceptualisation and prototyping

• Presentation

Before the end of the internship, the young students had the task of testing their prototype on users, where the feedback was to be used to improve the prototype.

The internship ended with the young students each giving a presentation about their case, process and prototype at Bakkegårdsskolen in Gentofte.