Parents and carers
As a parent or carer you will be keen to help your children to develop the skills they will need to help them succeed in the future - the skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work.
You will also want to guide and support them in making good career choices. You have significant influence over those choices and you can help best when you understand your children’s interests and strengths.
The world of work is constantly changing and the pace of change is faster today that it has ever been. So, even though you may have experience of the world of work it’s good to keep up to date with new developments. Virtual Work Experience gives you the opportunity to explore different types of business and job roles, and to gain current, accurate information to help you help your children.
What is Virtual Work Experience?
Virtual Work Experience is a website that introduces young people to the world of work and provides an excellent opportunity for you and your children to find out about some of the jobs available and to learn more about what they involve.
Virtual Work Experience is a relevant, fun and interactive resource allowing young people to explore different work environments within the safe confines of a territory they are familiar with - gaming technology.
It involves real workers in real jobs interacting with young people: telling them about different aspects of their place of work and specific job.
What does it aim to achieve?
Virtual Work Experience can help young people develop their understanding of the world of work. This is important as it will help them when making choices about their future careers, including further learning, training or employment.
It is designed to complement and supplement work placements which all young people are entitled to undertake as part of the curriculum, generally in S4. Work placements are highly valued by young people and by the huge number of employers and employees who support them. Virtual Work Experience is not a substitute for a work placement.
Using the virtual worlds allows young people to experience a variety of different career options, to learn about particular occupational sectors and job roles and to think about how these chime with their own career aspirations. It can help them identify a particular type of business suitable for their work placement.
Many young people are apprehensive when they begin their work placement as they are entering unfamiliar territory. The virtual world can allay some of their anxieties prior to the placement by helping them understand what might be expected of them. Getting an insight into a typical workplace will help give a young person confidence.
It can often be difficult for schools to secure appropriate and meaningful work placements for their pupils. Difficulties range from securing a highly prized placement in a company that is inundated with requests, to the challenges for small businesses in supporting a young person on a placement. Health and safety risks, too, can prevent placements in certain types of business. Young people may not even consider a particular job because it’s not particularly visible within an organisation and some, in remote or rural areas, often miss out on opportunities simply because of logistics. Virtual Work Experience has none of these barriers.
Virtual work experience
The virtual worlds allow young people to experience a variety of different career areas and decide which areas suit their own career ideas, and can help pinpoint their placement choice.
In addition, many young people are apprehensive when they begin their placement as they are entering an unknown situation. By accessing the virtual world prior to starting a placement, young people have an opportunity to develop an understanding of what will be expected of them when on placement.
Tours also allow young people to access information and advice on career areas that may not be able to host an actual placement due to staffing levels, confidentiality or health and safety requirements.
The choice of virtual world is not dependent on where the young person lives – those in remote and rural locations have access to the same tours as those who live in urban, central areas.
Useful links
Here you'll find links to relevant career and educational websites.