Methodology

Many young people are not in education and out of work. Many of them spend time playing games that give them the feeling of mastery and positive feedback. For this generation, technology is a natural part of life, they are keen to use digital channels and social media to get information about potential study possibilities and jobs. At the same time, traditional professions and channels of communication ‘lag behind’ digitally and often rely on text-only presentation modes, so young people feel uncertain about the path they should choose and how and where to get a job. The meeting with work life can be terrifying to some job seekers, especially those with low level of vocational self-concept, low level of vocational self-efficacy, and social anxiety. Young people that have little experience with working life or negative experience often develop a low level of vocational decision-making competence which is crucial for mastering working life. Therefore, there is a need to explore new and more efficient ways to communicate with young job seekers through digital experiences and channels, as well as to facilitate engaging and safe working experiences.

We explore Virtual Reality (VR) as a new means for helping young people to take part in working life. VR broadens the possibilities for providing practical education. This technology is used to train skills that would otherwise require a lot of supervision, such as assembly tasks. Other use cases include creating a training environment that is dangerous or unachievable in real life, making resources and devices accessible with limited access, and making abstract learning concrete. VR technology can have positive effects on learning. For instance, VR can promote and facilitate learning, provided the technology is properly integrated into the learning process technically, didactically and content-wise. The immersion of the online environment offers a positive effect on engagement and learning pleasure.

This document serves as a design methodology for VR applications to be used in career guidance and vocational education. The document derives the methodology from the theory and practice of career guidance and vocational education. The methodology itself is thus informed by the theory and practice of this domain and provides design recommendations to the professionals who aim to design VR applications to be used in this domain. The methodology describes how the scenarios and content should be created for VR applications to be used in career guidance and vocational education. The methodology however does not describe in detail the design of VR software applications.

This document is made for multi-disciplinary teams of professionals who are actively developing VR applications for career guidance and vocational education and training (VET). Professionals with the following competences should understand the guidance presented in this document and should work together on the development of such VR applications:

• Education, counseling, and experts of specific professions
  • Employees of welfare organizations who work with the unemployed
  • Teaching staff and technicians at VET organizations
  • Counselors and technicians at organizations that provide career guidance, such as career centers, municipalities, schools
  • Profession / industry stakeholders
• VR developers
  • Software developers
  • Graphics designers
  • Teachers and researchers at higher education institutions with interest in VR, VET, and counseling
  • Students at higher education institutions, especially, in study programs of computer science, educational sciences, and psychology