THE UNISIMII BUSINESS SIMULATION
Over the last decade or so the Industrial Careers Foundation has used a computerised business simulation as a core resource in the greater majority of the events that it project manages for schools and colleges across the UK.
At its inception the ICF standardised upon the UNISIM Business Game, a simulation originally written by Unilever in the days of the Apple II and BBC Micro. Based upon the widely accepted NIMEX model, UNISIM has for many years provided a user-friendly game of sufficient sophistication to be played by teams ranging from Year 10 in schools to experienced managers in industry.
By the early 1990's, however, the drastically increased computing power available in modern PCs meant that the restrictions inherent in the original simulation could be removed and significant increases in operational flexibility achieved. To this end the ICF commissioned UNISIMII a new computer program, which maintained all the excellent features of the original, whilst providing both the flexibility desired and the ready potential for future developments.
UNISIMII was thus born
During its development UNISIMII was run as a shadow game at several ICF conferences over a period of 2 years, thus ensuring that a high level of confidence was gained in the product prior to its adoption as the ICF standard. It has now been in regular and reliable use for the past ten years, during which time a policy of continuous improvement has been adopted.
For more details about the background to UNISIMII and some of its main features please click on the picture below.
UNISIMII - Developments
UNISIMII has been a core activity at by far the greater majority of the conferences organised by the ICF and exciting new variations are being developed by CTP. The potential of the product like this is, however, much broader and the ICF is exploring ways in which the educational value of UNISIMII might be exploited further.
UNISIMII has been linked to an entrepreneurship exercise, marketing and negotiating skills have been incorporated, it has been used to teach financial and economic awareness. We have even included language and design skills.
More recently the game has been used most succesfully as a challenging exercise with teams of managers from several areas of business, industry and commerce. In such an application we will ceertainly consider making arrangements to work together with staff in businesses or the third sector of education to provide a custom-designed package to suit their particular needs or interests. Additionally, use of the internet in such applications to exchange data electronically may possibly lead to the opportunity to go "international" with teams from across the world being able to compete on an equal footing!
We would welcome offers to help us to develop an inter-schools/colleges competition, using the full features of UNISIMII, at an affordable price. The use of the internet for data transfer and a dedicated area of the website for vital background information might well provide additional interest for students, emphasising the rapidly increasing linkage between modern industry and global communications and information systems.
PLEASE NOTE that we do not sell or hire UNISIMII to schools and colleges for their own use. Its sophistication as a model needs expert help to use it successfully. However it can be used very flexibly and we will be pleased to talk to anybody in detail how this might be done.
For more information about UNISIMII please contact: Geoff Shaw 
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Tel: |
01280 812547 |
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Email: |
geoff@icf.org.uk |
The UNISIMII business simulation is copyright Industrial Careers Foundation 2001