Modernization for LO's Summer- and Apprenticeship Patrol

LO wants to make it easy for young people to contribute to a safe and fair working life. The goal of the project was to give the Summer Patrols better support in the field for what really matters: the conversations with young workers.

Every summer, hundreds of young people visit workplaces, inform employees and uncover violations as part of LO's summer and apprenticeship patrol.

The Summer Patrol is an important work that has been carried out since 1985. Even though the mission is important, the tools are left in the past. Planning and documentation is done in several different programs, disconnected. This affects both efficiency and experience – especially for young people who are used to seamless digital solutions. Since digital product development is new to LO, they lacked the expertise and experience to give the Summer Patrol a digital boost.

Transparency and open dialogue

We saw that the key to success in the project was to build a team with 100% transparency throughout the development process.

— By sharing all steps, trials and errors, we ensured that the team learned to collaborate in agile processes with rapid iterations. — With regular demos, short feedback loops and an open testing environment, it became easy for everyone on the team to contribute input and share work tasks. — Insight work and testing prototypes with users in the field meant that we built solutions based on actual needs, not assumptions.

More than output – Collaboration to be proud of

The result is a simple and modern solution that makes Patrol work easier, while also being perceived as professional. It makes the team proud to show off the work that has been done, and internally within LO it contributed to a new product development culture, eager to create more.

A field solution that makes participation easy

For the youth in the Summer Patrol, it's about contributing – not wasting time on cumbersome systems. We created a website optimized for smartphones, that young people can easily use on their familiar devices. The website shows clearly what to do – both before, during and after the Patrol.

A tool that provides the overview

All information from the fieldwork goes directly into an online planning tool where LO's youth secretaries and coordinators have a full overview of participants, plan setup and interview results. In short: Less time on manual work. More time for what actually makes a difference.

Structured data offers new insights

The solution also provides LO with a reliable database over time – which can be used to uncover trends, follow up on violations and highlight the value of the work being done. With an analytics platform built in Power BI, the organization can easily extract insights and compare across regions, industries and years.

Launch June 2025

The new solution will be launched in June 2025, 40 years after the first Patrol. We at Variant cheer and support young people getting into a work, and we strive to create a safe and fair working life.