"Empowering Young Job Seekers with Virtual Reality" has been presented at IEEE VR 2019, the 26th IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces will be held from March 23rd through March 27th, 2019 at the Osaka International Convention Center in Osaka, Japan. http://www.ieeevr.org/2019/ Abstract: This paper presents the results of the Virtual Internship project that aims to help young job seekers get insights of different workplaces via immersive and interactive experiences. We designed a concept of ‘Immersive Job Taste’ that provides a rich presentation of occupations with elements of workplace training, targeting a specific group of young job seekers, including high-school students and unemployed. We developed several scenarios and applied different virtual and augmented reality concepts to build prototypes for different types of devices. The intermediary and the final versions of the prototypes were evaluated by several groups of primary users and experts, including over 70 young job seekers and high school students and over 45 various professionals and experts. The data were collected using questionnaires and interviews. The results indicate a generally very positive attitude towards the concept of immersive job taste, although with significant differences between job seekers and experts. The prototype developed for room-scale virtual reality with controllers was generally evaluated better than those including cardboard with 360 videos or with animated 3D graphics and augmented reality glasses. In the paper, we discuss several aspects, such as the potential of immersive technologies for career guidance, fighting youth unemployment by better informing the young job seekers, and various practical and technology considerations.

1. Empowering Young Job Seekers
with Virtual Reality
Ekaterina Prasolova-Førland, Mikhail Fominykh and Oscar Ihlen Ekelund
IMTEL, Department of Education and Lifelong learning, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
The 26th IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces | Session 12: Applications
Osaka, Japan | March 23-27, 2019
http://ieeevr.org/2019/

2. Youth
unemploymen
trate

3. Traditional methods
Traditional career
guidance
Trainee programs
and internships

4. Traditional methods
Traditional career
guidance
Trainee programs
and internships
Uncertain and frustrated
young job seekers

5. Virtual Internship project summary
Goal
Simulation of workplaces in VR/AR/MR with gaming elements for a
motivating and engaging career guidance
Target audience
Young unemployed (up to 25 years), high-school students
Sense of mastery
Allowing to explore and train in unfamiliar situations, in a safe setting,
thus mastering the corresponding real-world situations

7. Video of the app not included here

8. Methodology
Mapping the needs prototypes evaluation design methodology
VR
Virtual Internship project summary

9. Methodology
Mapping the needs prototypes evaluation design methodology
VR
prototypes
evaluation
Virtual Internship project summary

10. Target groups
55 young job seekers 37 welfare professionals
34 male 10 male
21 female 21 female
6 unspecified gender
Median age 21 Median age 49
49% have experience with games 0% have experience with games
18% have experience with VR / AR 0% have experience with VR / AR

11. Questionnaire
Background
Age, gender, tech experience, job-related experience
App specific questions
User friendliness
Usefulness
Possible future extensions
Immersive Job Taste concept
Usefulness for increasing confidence, motivation and awareness about the workplaces
If such apps should be offered at welfare centers and schools
If such VR/AR apps are fun and easy to use
If the participants would require technical assistance to use such VR/AR apps

12. Questionnaire
Background
Age, gender, tech experience, job-related experience
App specific questions
User friendliness
Usefulness
Possible future extensions
Immersive Job Taste concept
Usefulness for increasing confidence, motivation and awareness about the workplaces
If such apps should be offered at welfare centers and schools
If such VR/AR apps are fun and easy to use
If the participants would require technical assistance to use such VR/AR apps

13. Questionnaire
Background
Age, gender, tech experience, job-related experience
App specific questions
User friendliness
Usefulness
Possible future extensions
Immersive Job Taste concept
Usefulness for increasing confidence, motivation and awareness about the workplaces
If such apps should be offered at welfare centers and schools
If such VR/AR apps are fun and easy to use
If the participants would require technical assistance to use such VR/AR apps

14. Immersive Job Taste
Traditional career
guidance
Trainee programs
and internships

15. Traditional career
guidance
Trainee programs
and internships
Rely on text-
based
information
time-consuming,
logistically
difficult
Immersive Job Taste

16. Traditional career
guidance
Trainee programs
and internships
Rely on text-
based
information
time-consuming,
logistically
difficult
Learning, test of skillsConsume information
Immersive Job Taste

17. Learning, test of skills
Traditional career
guidance
Trainee programs
and internships
Rely on text-
based
information
time-consuming,
logistically
difficult
Consume information
Immersive Job Taste
concept
VR

18. VR
Immersive Job Taste
concept
capture
experiences in
the workplace
convey
experiences
directly
a ‘peek’ into a
profession not
covering all the
details

19. VR
Immersive Job Taste
methodology
capture
experiences in
the workplace
convey
experiences
directly
a ‘peek’ into a
profession not
covering all the
details
How to
How to
How toHow to
a ‘peek’ into a
profession not
covering all the
details

20. Immersive Job Taste
methodology
capture
experiences in
the workplace
How to
-> 3D

21. Task # Activity # Skill 1 Skill 2 … Skill X Points
Task 1 Activity 1
Activity 2
…
Activity X
Task 2
…
Task X
Feedback
message
from job announcements
a ‘peek’ into a
profession not
covering all the
details
How to

22. Task # Activity # Skill 1 Skill 2 … Skill X Points
Task 1 Activity 1
Activity 2
…
Activity X
Task 2
…
Task X
Feedback
message
from interviews with employers
a ‘peek’ into a
profession not
covering all the
details
How to

23. Task # Activity # Skill 1 Skill 2 … Skill X Points
Task 1 Activity 1
Activity 2
…
Activity X
Task 2
…
Task X
Feedback
message
from employers and career counselors
a ‘peek’ into a
profession not
covering all the
details
How to

24. Task # Activity # Skill 1 Skill 2 … Skill X Points
Task 1 Activity 1
Activity 2
…
Activity X
Task 2
…
Task X
Feedback
message
from interviews with employers
a ‘peek’ into a
profession not
covering all the
details
How to

25. Both job seekers and counselors are very positive
to the concept.
The majority agreed or strongly agreed that such
apps:
1. should be available for job seekers
2. could give a better confidence in performing
work tasks and a better understanding of
different professions
Evaluation results

26. ‘High-level’ VR version
was the absolute
favorite
Evaluation results
Divided views on AR/Hololens
‘Low-level’ Cardboard versions
less user friendly, but useful in
certain contexts and more
accessible (at home)

27. Realism
▪ Industry representatives found the simulation realistic and
giving a good representation of typical working tasks
Evaluation results

28. Realism
▪ Industry representatives found the simulation realistic and
giving a good representation of typical working tasks
Sense of mastery
▪ Sense of mastery connected to choosing the right profession
Evaluation results

29. Realism
▪ Industry representatives found the simulation realistic and
giving a good representation of typical working tasks
Sense of mastery
▪ Sense of mastery connected to choosing the right profession
Capturing
▪ Divided views on 360 video / 3D graphics
Evaluation results

30. Realism
▪ Industry representatives found the simulation realistic and
giving a good representation of typical working tasks
Sense of mastery
▪ Sense of mastery connected to choosing the right profession
Capturing
▪ Divided views on 360 video / 3D graphics
Gaming vs Instruction
▪ Divided views on gaming elements
Evaluation results

31. Job seekers
– “I believe in a few years it will be one of the main tools used in
job seeking”
Evaluation results

32. Job seekers
– “I believe in a few years it will be one of the main tools used in
job seeking”
– “VR is the key to reach people.”
Evaluation results

33. Job seekers
– “I believe in a few years it will be one of the main tools used in
job seeking”
– “VR is the key to reach people.”
– “Let’s say I want to apply for a job in fisheries, that it is an
advantage that I been inside (the simulation) and tried out
different tasks, and got a kind of workplace training, compared
to no experience at all. The employer would consider that
positive as well”.
Evaluation results

34. Welfare professionals
– believed the main goal of the concept should be training and
career-related self-efficacy increase, because self-efficacy “is
essential for everything!”
Evaluation results

35. Welfare professionals
– believed the main goal of the concept should be training and
career-related self-efficacy increase, because self-efficacy “is
essential for everything!”
– “It is a nice way of giving job seekers a more realistic
impression of different work settings [...]. You get the broad
strokes of a profession, and then it’s easier to know ‘is this
within my field of interests or not’”
Evaluation results

36. Job seekers
Such apps
should:
Q2: be used
for career
guidance at
schools
Q1: be
available at
welfare
centers.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Strongly
disagree
Disagree Neither agree
or disagree
Agree Strongly agree
Numberofresponces
Q2
Q1

37. Welfare Professionals
Such apps
should:
Q2: be used
for career
guidance at
schools
Q1: be
available at
welfare
centers.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Strongly
disagree
Disagree Neither agree
or disagree
Agree Strongly agree
Numberofresponces
Q2
Q1

38. More results
in the paper

39. FisheryVR

40. FisheryVR

41. FiskeVR

43. Electrician – windmill in VR
Video of the app not included here

44. Construction VR
Video of the app not included here

45. Future work
Validating the Job Taste concept outside
the lab, evaluating long-term effect

46. Future work
Validating the Job Taste concept outside
the lab, evaluating long-term effect
Implementing additional professions and
workplaces

47. Future work
Validating the Job Taste concept outside
the lab, evaluating long-term effect
Further developing the Job Taste
methodology
Implementing additional professions and
workplaces

49. Thank you
for your attention!
Mikhail Fominykh
mikhail.fominykh@ntnu.no
Ekaterina Prasolova-Førland
ekaterip@ntnu.no
NTNU IMTEL Lab
Facebook: /IMTELlab
Twitter: @IMTELlab
Funding
Project financed by the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration
Oscar Ihlen Ekelund
oscarie@ntnu.no