Effectiveness of a competence- and game-based learning environment using a digital educational escape room for promoting cybersecurity competence in apprentices

Human behavior remains a primary attack surface in everyday cybersecurity incidents, as employees make fast, routine decisions when using digital tools, communicating, and handling sensitive information in technology-rich workplaces, making cybersecurity competence (CSC) a foundational workplace capability. To foster CSC, technology-mediated training needs to go beyond awareness and enable practice in recognizing, evaluating, and responding to security-relevant situations in realistic, interactive scenarios, particularly at career entry points in vocational education and training (VET) when routines and mental models are still forming. Organizations therefore increasingly use game-based security education, training, and awareness (SETA) programs such as digital educational escape rooms (DEERs), yet longitudinal evidence for sustained CSC gains is scarce. The present study addresses this gap by evaluating a competence- and game-based learning environment using a DEER in a cluster-randomized controlled trial with VET apprentices ( N = 154). CSC was assessed at three time points using a validated situational judgment test, with intervention effects analyzed through a latent change score model. The intervention group started higher in latent CSC at pretest ( b = 0.71, p = .023, β = .23) and showed a substantially larger short-term gain from pretest to posttest than the control group ( b = 1.97, p < .001, β = .66). From posttest to follow-up, this advantage attenuated significantly ( b = −0.96, p = .028, β = −.40). The findings suggest that the competence- and game-based learning environment using a DEER provides a promising, practice-oriented SETA format for VET, while underscoring the need for booster sessions and transfer-focused practice to ensure long-term effects.